- from the Asclopius by Hermes Trismegistus (Thoth)
The concept of holistic spirituality seen as pure Art viewed through ecumenical cultural roots is an all-embracing and exciting one. The idea is rapidly growing that all the various cultures and races thrown up by the burgeoning of human life on this planet are linked by common psychic and ratiocinative (cognitive) Patterns. These emerging Patterns have form and are keyed into the planetary structure (biosphere) through precise metrological and geometrical formulae. These formulae order and spark the ratios of Creative Existence. The Patterns, which are really a morphological ontology, are also deliberately keyed into the human mind and spirit. Evidence now exists to verify these startling (and crucial) recognisances. The Patterns are written into the landspace and can be ''invoked'' through application of the geomantic arts through applied psychism in the form of mystical divination. Or put another way, the application of controlled and organically directed prophecy tempered by love.
The evidence linking these canonical Patterns surfaces in many forms. Sacred Geometry, Sacred Architecture, Sacred Art, the rhythms and patterns of Sacred Dance, Symbolic Theatre (the use of dramatised ritual and formal movement to symbolise root psychological and spiritual Truths), and last but not least, the urge in humanity to always seek for a ''wholeness'', or as Jung would have put it ''a reintegration of the sundered psyche''. All these facets of unified Being meet in the human journey towards spiritual (and social) enlightenment in all the species of Mankind. The underlying harmonious movement of the ''quest'' solidifies human purpose into an appreciation of its role in enhancing freedom and nourishing its most nutritious metaphysical roots. This sacred Quest crystallizes into the many linking forms of the Divine Cosmological Patterns and surfaces in symbolic form through the main impetus of Art, Theatre and Dance that is a common heritage everywhere. These Arts, etc., are often reflected on and in the landscape. A landscape which all ancient cultures once recognised as Sacred and alive, corruscating with almost sentient patterns of energy and informational ''fields'' that encompassed morphological empathy and growth. The ''morphic resonance'' of Rupert Sheldrake is really the old Akashic record in scientific guise.
When performers of different racial and cultural backgrounds draw their artistic strengths from the archetyped, symbolic reservoir of Canonical Art geomythically woven into the landscape, all barriers dissolve away. True unity of communication can then ensue. A Natural Joy and rapport is engendered that overrides any artificial cultural impedimentia generating natural shamanism. To use a world-spanning example, the ruins of a vast system of sacred/geometrical architecture lies across the face of every country on earth. Stonehenge, Baalbak, the Carnac alignments, Tiahuanaco, Mohenjo Daro, all the megaliths and earthworks threaded over the planet in their ornate geometrical patterns make up this immeasurably ancient system. It is a system that this writer terms as having ''geomythical'' structure. Associated with this intricate design, which the great contemporary mystic John Michell has termed ''spiritual engineering'', there are art forms, folk tales, myths, legends, ritual dances and shamanistic drama. These outer cultural expressions of what the old system of megalithic science represented have certain formal points of coherence. For example, tribesmen celebrating a ritual dance of fertility and communion with the Gods in a remote African village, probably centred around their own old standing stone, would instantly be in rapport with our own Abbots Bromley Horn Dancers and Morris Men when they dance the Solstice and Equinoctal celebrations in Derbyshire, sometimes at Arbor Low stone circle. To restructure these ancient geomantic communions and correspondences is a long quest in its own right. Art, science and all interconnected cultural beauties form the flesh of this quest. Hence the holistic aspect of the divination that springs from dowsing the Sacred Landscape.
Japanese ''Noh'' plays, formal Greek masque drama, English Medieval ''Mystery'' plays, contemporary avant garde mime and ''conceptual'' theatre troupes, all refine the alchemical gold of Canonical psychism that springs from the relics of the antediluvian system of Spiritual Art. In the Platonic sense it is a mathematical dance of causative form made poetic and colourfully alive through human spiritual agency. In simple terms, the human beings, in touch and in action with the living, mythical landscape and its geometrically keyed, organically synergetic monuments, orchestrate the Holy Vision and perform the sacred Dance - the Spiral Dance of Life.
This ''dancing'' across the face of the Sacred Earth using ecstatically divined Spiritual Art crystallises geomythically into the physical reality of questing. When questing, whether it be for spiritual knowledge, sacred artefacts or historical enlightenment through such applications as clairvoyance, psychometry or dowsing, the underlying purpose remains. That purpose is the linking of the questor in a form of total Situational ''theatre'' that leads to a Oneness of Being with the whole Creational matrix. A cosmic rapport and perspective. Dr. Frances Yates makes all this much clearer in her great book of Rosicrucian enlightenment entitled ''The Theatre of the World''. In some ways the cliche ''all is theatre'' is accurate.
The current popularity of psychic questing comes from the need of people to unravel the sacred patterns that lie behind the facade of physical reality. Questing is a visionary experience rooted in the geomythics of actual interaction with the tactile and energising constituents of the living earth. This writer has described his geomythics as being physically symbolic and symbolically physical.... conterminously. So is questing! It is a form of psychic interfacing. To be experientially holistic it has to be. When the questor achieves the quest it can be as enriching (and as enlightening) as when the Old Arthurian knights achieved the Grail. The metaphor is of course identical. A modern ''technical'' metaphor might be the blending of hardware and software in a harmonious synergy of function. It is really the apotheosis of what the Renaissance metaphysician Robert Fludd called ''unitas'' and, more recently, Jung described as the ''Mysterium Coniunctionis''.
All quests eventually lead to reunion with God in whatever form Godhead may be initially culturally recognised. Thus the true point of the quest is finally revealed. Reunion. In alchemically metaphysical reunion, ''coagula solva'', all answers are made clear, all thirsts are assuaged, and all weariness ceases. The questor has achieved the goal, the knight has achieved the Grail and the stars toss their heads in Joy at the beauty of harmonious wisdom reborn in the human soul. The soul's fountain of spirit, springing from the well-spring of God's fathomless matrix, the Grail, nurtures the questor's harmony with cosmic consciousness. In what the Celts called the ''chanting spheres of prophecy'' all wisdom is resolved. In Robert Coon's zones of geomythical magic that wisdom blends into harmonic application. Humanity is the catalyst. To seek, to quest, to Know is the essence of human destiny.
- Anthony Roberts, Gondolin, August 1988
Robert Coon shows his intuitive grasp of geomythics by the way he has deployed the concept in this book. But there is more to this ''new'' synthesis (or synergy) than intuition. There is in fact a blending of the subjective and the objective that produces a depth understanding of the canonical patterns of existence. For instance when Robert Coon describes leys as ''the arteries of Gaia'' he is echoing, geomythically, the fact that leys are quantifiably ''real'', yet they retain a magical fluidity of expression. This fluidity encompasses width, flow, waxing and waning of energies, physical constituents, etc. that make leys as variable (in all their functions) as their counterparts that flow through human bodies. Indeed, the fluctuatory, shrinking and growing ''living corridor'' nature of leys, in their canonically regulated patterns, makes those new proponents of ''chaos theory'' seem decidedly accurate in their musings! In this writer's book Atlantean Traditions In Ancient Britain (Rider & Co. 1977) the purpose behind leys is described thus:
''The work of Alfred Watkins sweeps aside some of the debris of history andreveals the clear view over Atlantis in a microcosm across the British Isles. He sensed that there was more to this complicated system than coincidental alignments of stones, ponds, camps, roads and hills. He sensed in fact the undying presence of the real 'Giants in the Earth', the endless works of the prehistoric civilization that traced the veins and arteries of the living planet as a glowing net-work of power and strength.''
That is the concept that lies behind, or perhaps more persuasively, quantifies the rationale of geomythics. This ''new'' spiritually enriching approach forms the bridge between ontology and scientific methodology. It is almost a reiteration of the old hermetic cosmological concept ''as above so below'', what some magicians term as a doctrine of signatures or correspondence. But now to a wider explanation of our new magic word.
The drawing together of myth and cosmos begins and ends in the detailed and corresponding study of earthly records, always strictly counterpointed by the flowing movement of time. The ''physical'' myths of Britain can now be examined as a microcosm of all such phenomena everywhere, and evaluated on a connecting metaphysical basis that directly unites the two. As the disciplines involved in weaving together such subjects range from folklore through archaeology to architecture to religion and then geology and geophysics, it has been necessary to coin a new word to sum it all up. This word is ''geomythics'', meaning earthmyths or myths in relation to the earth's situation, both topographically, metaphysically and in cosmic time and space. It is the elucidation of geomythics that makes up the motivating impetus behind all this author's work. Myth and cosmos meet within the geomythical thesis, where understanding of the former allows psychological and spiritual unity with the latter. ''As above, so below'' is still one of the great truisms of human understanding, for it strikes what might be termed the cosmic balance.
If we are dealing with a reflected universal cosmology, it is evident that facets of this reflection will shine out in the light of a new geomythical analysis. The specific concept of the ''geomythic'', although original to this writer, has of course been intuited in a wider context by previous chroniclers of esotericism and sacred history. But perhaps not in such clear terms as will be made plain throughout this writing. By relating myth to topography and then examining the topographical relationship of physical form in conjunction with spiritual (and other) energies, a transcendent synthesis of ontological evaluation comes into being. Put simpler this means that the inherent magic/religious properties of sacred sites (both natural and artificial) blend or transmute into the higher harmonies and energies of the living Universe. They do this in a manner that is ever recurring (cyclic) and harmoniously counterpointed by an organised pattern and purpose. This canonical pattern shapes (and regulates) the eternal rhythm of Being. Pythagoras and Plato, two of the greatest religious philosophers who ever lived, both recognised that a proportional, geometric patterning lay at the roots of existence. They saw (and taught) that the movement of Creation was governed by an organised prime form, a form whose functional principle was dictated by geometry through number, then being diversified into an endless compartmentalisation, resulting in the myriad forms of existent reality. This reality always reflects its own Image, however fragmented. So the mathematically measured energies of the Gods flow from the Prime-Mover and fill the Universe with their motivating design and purpose. The creative forces that regulate the heavens are also inherent in the rhythms and structures of the earthly surface and biosphere, where they shape the constituents of the atmosphere, build the mountains, valleys, seas and rivers, grow the flowers, rocks and trees, fuse in the bodies of living creatures and energise humanity with the divine spark of Awareness. This is the real ''natural'' magic that has been so cruelly misinterpreted for so long! It is a magic that springs from the incredibly complex patterns of living Nature and it shines in glory from every leaf, stone, tree and hill. It blazes and fertilizes with the masculine Sun and gently but coolly regulates its creatively gestatory dances through the feminine Moon. The polarity (and form) of the cosmos is contained and shown as much in the swirling energies of an atom as in the coldly distant burning of a spiral galaxy. All is relative, interconnected and Alive. There is a deliberately patterned coherency to the whole morphological density of form that brings a formal immediacy of recognition to the mind that is steeped in the physical reality of mythological lore.
The geomythical concept makes an apt precis of the complexities of the above ''physical philosophy''. It equates the cosmic symbolism of celestial pattern and design (macrocosm) with the representative manifestation of realised forms in the terrestrial environment (microcosm). By employing geomythics to view (and reconcile) the patterns of the past, the gates of Perception are opened and the way prepared for an inclusive vision of all aspects of so-called ''occult'' phenomena. For instance fairies, giants, elemental spirits, etc. are all geomythically real, and all are intimately related to the ancient sites of great and enduring sanctity. These sites are in many instances entirely natural, i.e. sacred springs, holy mountains, magic rocks, oracle caves, ritual groves etc. Sometimes the sites where such ''super-natural'' phenomena activate are totally artificial, such as stone circles, standing stones, earthworks, shaped hills, barrows, leys and every other type of prehistoric monument. Whatever the nature of the site (sites) a wide variety of paranormal impulse seems to be generated in its (their) vicinity. This is all diligently recorded in folklore and legend (often transmitted over millennia on an oral basis) by scholars of no little intelligence. Parallel with this there is the linking of such sites and places of religious power with the curious movements of geological or geophysical activity. Barrows and megalithic stones are often associated with meteorological forces through dramatic physical fluctuations, ranging from earthquakes and thunderstorms; to lightning and floods. Equally, hundreds of ancient sites are located near geological fault-lines and over labyrinthine under-ground water courses, all radiating their own forms of energy. The magical entities that hover around these sites are themselves accredited with powers over the natural environment and through these powers they are joined with the energies of the mighty chthonic deities whom the Gnostics termed the ''Archons, guardians of all the worlds''. Thus geomythics are initiated through mythic reality.
There is a physical symbolism in this approach to mythology that leavens (but never diminishes) the fantasy of the tales, always seeking to unravel the thread of meaning that encompasses the totality of their existence. Such a synthesis has not been attempted for hundreds of years, for the recent (rational) intellectual ''atmosphere'' has not been conducive to such notions. However, the present writer considers the time is now right and so the task of assembling the old cosmic pattern is again being attempted. By charting the ratios of correspondence flowing between earthly myth and supernal cosmos, it is hoped that metaphysical clarity will gradually ensue. By concentrating (through geomythics) on the physical minutiae of the British mythological system, it is suggested that the true, magic-enhancing colours can be put back into that never ending tapestry first woven by the Gods at the instigation of the Prime Creational Force.
A geomythic can be a symbolic truth (usually magical) contained within a physical fact (usually topographical). It can encompass such unified geomantic aspects as giant skeletons in prehistoric barrows (Fairies Toot, Nempnett Thrubwell, Somerset), fairies occupying sacred sites (Glastonbury Tor), cosmological correspondence through psychic integration (Terrestrial Zodiacs) and spiritual engineering through the geometrical ratios of the cosmic canon (leys).
''Spheres of Destiny'' is really a detailed study in geomythics. The interpenetrating spheres of astrological/geomantic influences that are charted in their geographical patterns across the earth, are synergetically geomythical. The precise chronological data is interwoven with the astrological conjunctions and resonates onto the living body of the earth in geomantically scientific canonicism. The sacred sites where the patterns coalesce and spark energy into the biosphere are all steeped in myth. In fact the myths that have survived around these areas of perennial sanctity prove that their properties and key places in the overall Cosmic Pattern were well known to the ancients. Geomythics is an arcane discipline, only the word is ''new''.
A classic case in point in Robert Coon’s writings is a reference to Templecombe near the Shaston eagle earth effigy. It is noted as a key enclave of the Knights Templar, those medieval guardians of much geomantic magic. The church at Templecombe is also world famous for containing a holy relic. It's a mysterious Templar painting that represents the Divine face of the Christ. It's a haunting, powerful face that has been geomythically correlated by many scholars with the face revealed by ''cosmic fusion'' on the Sacred Shroud of Turin!
Another equally cogent instance of realised geomythics occurs where Coon discusses the geomantic linkages between Callanish stone circle and Maes Howe mound in northern Scotland. Much is made of the alchemical efficacy of runes, especially those written on spears and cauldrons. In the context of the book's geomythics Callanish is the spear, Maes Howe the Cauldron. Runes are carved on a stone at Callanish. More importantly, the inner sanctum chamber of the Maes Howe prehistoric cathedral was later adapted by Vikings. They carved runic inscriptions on its walls and a strange, stylised portrait of a rampant dragon. The dragon is a symbol for the geomantic earth currents. Runes, themselves intrinsic symbols of power, are the externalised geomythics here. Such is the majesty (and complexity) that surrounds the concept of geomythics.
But the subject does not only encompass the miasmic mysteries of myth. There can even be a form of geomythical ''science'', which sounds like (but is not) a contradiction in terms. Take these startling facts for instance. The French scientist M.G. Thieux (member of the Compagnie Generale de Geophysique) has written a paper (1972)* that investigates what he calls the scientific properties of telluric currents. His findings are quite remarkable from a geomythical point of view. Thieux states that telluric currents (earth energies) are caused by the displacement of ''ions'' (electric particles formed by an atom, or group of atoms, which gain or lose a quantified number of electrons). He further states that streams are forms of electronic ''baths'', having secondary currents carrying ions (cations and anions) between one electrode and another. The function is that certain elements and electric charges are regularly emitted in rhythmical pulses. Thieux has theorized that energy exchange and recharging occur between a natural electrode, i.e. a standing stone, rock, tree, springs, etc. and a second polarizing point with a different potential, which can easily be a human being! In Charroux's ''The Mysterious Past'' the author summarizes the rest of Thieux's amazing hypothesis thus:
Ions have quite specialised properties, notably that of losing their charges, and they can, depending on factors of equilibrium and potential enrich or impoverish man's physical and psychical organism.
Malign places are those where those ions cause a cellular (or at least electrical) disequilibrium, or cause a loss of potential. ''Benign'' places are those where the charge carried compensates for a lack of potential, re-charges the human accumulator, or, through syntonization (accord, harmony, resonance) re-establish the electrical balance which has been disturbed.
What one needs to do therefore is discover the electrode which is complementary to one's own, and which will not emit harmful but revitalizing impulses. Such electrodes are often trees, standing stones, or a particular type of ground.
In former times the druids made this discovery empirically. They chose the oak from all other trees as their life-giving father, and the menhir as their health-giver.
Finally, Thieux suspects that telluric currents are created under the auspices of the sun, having a periodicity of 27 days. They intermesh (and interact) through and with the earth's magnetic field and gravity system, regulated by the moon.
This ''science'' is reflected in the countless myths pertaining to sacred sites and ''special'' spots on the earth's surface being somehow beneficial (or malign) through certain ''magical'' properties inherent to them. If all these facets are integrated into what Tom Graves has called an ancient system of magical technology, a clearer geomantic understanding arises. This is the main function of geomythics. It presents a linking 'interface' between all the various levels (and manifestations) of earth mysteries, gathering them together under one interpretable umbrella of depth unification. In this sense geomythics is really a study of the interpenetrating, and ultimately harmonious patterns (and powers) of Creation. ''Mythology'' is really the special ''creative'' language of God focused through the human spirit and interpreted through the living earth.
*This paper was published in Lumieres Dans La Nuit No. 117, April-May 1972. It is commented on in Robert Charroux's book ''The Mysterious Past'' (Futura Books 1974)
In the ever widening fields of physics and chemistry, now famous tests, recently carried out by the Italian Professor Giorgio Piccardi, indicated that as the years progress results fluctuate wildly (and rhythmically) according to the delicate balance of solar phenomenon and the complex interrelation of extra-terrestrial force fields. The earth is moving in a measurable spiral trajectory through space and strangely, the spiral is one of the main patterns found diversified throughout nature. As it progresses the earth is crossing fluctuating lines of power created by the pulsating tidal forces of the Milky Way which also radiates a field of force that gives it spiral motion. As it moves the galaxy is, in turn, influenced by all the existent matter and energy that flows sequentially through the Universe. This is recognised in physics by the maxim ''motion is waves and waves are motion'', in fact producing an almost Zen-like philosophical understanding of rhythmic counterpoint and fluidic interaction.
Every living entity is a complex amalgam of meshing electromagnetic forces and personal generative energy. From this it can be seen that galaxies influence stars, stars influence planets, and planets influence the lifeforms that grow upon them. Indeed, certain astronomers have come to the conclusion that planets are by-products from the creation of stars, produced by combinations of the atoms born from the tidal movements (rhythms) of cosmic forces.
All this vast rhythmic structure is microcosmically reflected on earth. It shines out in the returning circadian cycles of human physiology. The circadian rhythms flow and reflect through the human bodily circuits, especially the brain, in waves of psychically fluidic motion. This motion/rhythm is cosmically inspired (and psychologically efficacious) through a cyclically returning and structured chronological basis. It is such regular biorhythmic activity that interacts (interfaces) with the terrestrial energy cycles, and the human organism ceaselessly responds to this ''cosmic related power flow'' like the sensitive instrument it is. Health, cognitive capacity, growth, sex, etc. are all influenced and regulated by circadian rhythms. Ancient Man intuitively recognised this circadian psychic activity and its tie-in to the seasonal flow, seeing how nature's cyclic rhythms influenced both the structure of time and man's function within it. Hence the importance and meaning of Astrology.
The cycles of history echo the eternal cycles of the cosmos (birth, growth, decay and re-birth) and the human race exists within and between them as interpreter of, and mediator between, the providential cyclic realities of the Divine Will. It has been discovered by the French Professor Y. Ricard that circadian rhythms pervade all biological tissues and cell structures and they are vitally responsive to geo-magnetism and powerful gravitational phenomena. This links humanity to a physically sequential periodicity through the recurring forces that govern the earth's basic cycle of energy patterns. It provides the microcosmic equation that blends with the macrocosmic power- flow into an alchemical fruition of great subtlety and complexity. It also links Homo Sapiens to the seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter and the earthly activities these solar influenced energy quadrants generate and regulate. In other words mankind has always been aware of the integrated patterns of a precise calendrical rhythm. That awareness has manifested throughout history in myriads of ways. It is really ''living astrology''.
The meticulous measuring of nature's regular flow chart through a calendar has always been one of humanity's top priorities. The vast corpus of legend, myth, folklore and all their attendant customs, traditions, even superstitions, are all reflections of humanity's need to come to terms with the basic rhythms and energies of existence. The annals of magic, which incidentally are as complex and detailed as all the branches of modern science, provide the working data upon which the ancient metaphysical science of Hermeticism was based. Hermeticism sprang (through the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans) from the immemorially ancient science of ''geomancy'' which is the art of shaping patterns of power in suitably aesthetic structural harmony on the face of the living earth. Geomancy is now recognised as fuelling the ethos of the long lost Golden Age, remembered and celebrated in every mythic tradition on earth.
From the above it can be gathered that knowledge of mankind's intimate relationship (even Stewardship) with the Cosmos is far older than any orthodox historian or archaeologist would be capable of recognising. The present author has written several books detailing these ''underground'' aspects of history, usually delineated as ''occult'', and, as research has developed, has noticed more and more the importance of calendrical/solar recognisances among Ancient Man. The calendar, in whatever form envisaged by whatever culture, has linked everything in human life by providing a magical measuring of the sequential flux of observed reality. In fact it regulates, measures and guides the pulse of life and, on a grander scale, measures out the stately pattern of the ''ages''.
Observation of calendrical movements have been noted by the American Professor Alexander Marshak as being highly sophisticated among the brilliant yet mysterious Cro-Magnon culture. This flourished around 25,000 BC Marshak has discovered and proved that the Cro-Magnon wise-men (wizards) had a precise lunar and solar calendar. They recorded in a form of mathematical calculus by carving complex notational designs upon thousands of bones and small round pebbles. They could predict eclipses and recorded exactly the phases and cycles of the moon and certain stars. This alone shows they were in contact with those higher forms of cosmic thought that lift Homo Sapiens above the level of unthinking beasts. The mysterious Cro-Magnons were the inheritors of this supreme astronomical/calendrical knowledge but their sources are even more mysterious and cannot be discussed here. As the knowledge filtered down it became diffused and encrusted symbolically with much magical and mythological lore. This too acted as a mediatory and interpretive leavener of the high learning. This learning flowered again in the great megalithic culture that blossomed throughout Western Europe from 9,000 BC onwards. Another New Age. The key symbol of this very astronomically orientated culture was the mystic spiral of Creation.
Since the Megalithic era the sacred inheritance of synergetic cosmic lore has been directly traceable through the known cycles of history. It has become generically recognised as the great Pagan tradition and in that tradition the calendar and its corresponding astronomical/astrological associations gradually became predominant. At root this is practical, for any culture relying on the use of natural, organic agriculture needs an accurate calendar to measure the seasonal planting, growing and harvesting times.
The word pagan stems from the Latin ''pagus'' meaning village or rural district. But the grander term ''religio paganorum'', ergo the ''god's worshipping religion of the villagers or country people'', carries the true metaphysical weight necessary for such deeply religious feeling as was engendered by the pagan canon. Paganism as such recognised the elemental nature of reality and worshipped the natural rhythms of life, codifying them in a variety of religious practices that encompassed ritual, sacrifice, intercourse with Gods, fairies, spirits, etc. All this was linked to the cycles of nature through devout calendrical recognizance coupled with religious practice. Pagan humanity breathed and rippled with the seasons, responding to the divine resonances of nature in their correct order of appearance. Life was elemental and natural yet the knowledge of this elemental energy was profoundly enshrined in the ''Ancient Wisdom'' as a firm underpinning to its correct function. Robert Coon's geomantic/astrological zones of influence are a perfect reflection of this elemental geomythic function.
As time ''progressed'' and so-called civilised urban culture began to swamp the more loosely knit pagan hegemony, the calendar, and all its associated astronomical knowledge, folklore, ritual practices, etc. became re-organised and re-structured. It also became more tightly controlled and fanatically observed, This can be seen in the brilliant, elegant yet highly bureaucratic Druid calendar known as the Coligny Calendar because its stone carved tablets were found at Coligny in France. The Druids were the last and most powerful pagan priesthood to hold power in Western Europe and they flourished circa 1,000 BC onwards. The word Druid has produced many etymological speculations but the most poetically satisfying is that it derives from the ogham symbol DR which means a tree, most especially the oak tree or ''drus''. The ogham alphabet was an ancient Celtic tree language of magical import closely linked to the calendar and intimately (if eccentrically) researched by the poet and scholar Robert Graves. Ogham was a ritualised magical tongue used by the bards and Druids, often carved on megalithic stones and enshrining reams of ancient lore, much of it astronomical, calendrical and cyclic in nature. The Norse runes provide a similar function. Ogham and runes are both said to contain a real intrinsic power of application. So when we discuss paganism we are looking at the whole religious and philosophical human experience prior to the advent of its inheritor, Christianity. In the final centuries before the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the inception of the new Piscean Age, paganism became sadly decadent. All the ancient writings make this evident directly (rarely) and indirectly (mostly) and many practices became inverted and polluted. The old geomantic sciences and the beauties of megalithic astronomy became garbled and half-forgotten. Their exact calendrical and magical function became enshrouded in misunderstood superstition and tart yet highly fanciful tales. The customs and folklore that we know (and practice) today replaced the austere grandeur of the lost civilizations of pre-history, even becoming comic in some of their applications. This ''confusion'' often happens at the end of an era.... it is happening now!
Yet despite this bastardization the pagan canonical metaphysic has never quite lost it's magic. All the wide ranging and bizarre stories that make up the legacy of ancient customs today are firmly grounded in the old spiral knowledge linking earth, sun, moon and stars through the attuned cycles of a realised synergy of form and function. Even today recognizance of the calendrical processes presides over this form and function with a curious efficacy and dignity. This is because they impose a cyclic and rhythmical order of the sometimes wildly fluctuating meanderings of individual human existence. The past fuels the future through the leavening alchemy of the present.
The main function of a rhythmically cyclic calendar is to make the interfacing fusions of the cosmic/terrestrial data base manifest in the world. It is really to chronicle the amazing and immortal patterns of Being. However, the coldly modern terminology is here resolutely factual. A Druid would probably have said, ''all is connective, all is harmony, all is flow, all is rhythm, the calendar sings of this, showing God's manifestations of Nature to enlighten and guide the hearts of men'' - eminently more poetic, and arguably more accurate in concert. However, both intellectual frameworks are really saying everything comes in rhythmic waves and there is a time and a place for everything encompassed among those waves. All these waves nicely break on the shores of understanding. But what if somewhere there is a wave without a shore; a manifestation of energy/soul that is beyond finitely calendrical codiciation? Is there Pure conceptual Being that radiates its ''information'' in vast, cosmically flung energy fields? But the ''wave without a shore'' must pulse in the realms of higher metaphysics. The rhythms explored here must now spiral back to earth, particularly the geomythically active earth around Glastonbury and Shaftesbury. The wider aspects of geomythics studied above home in as a microcosm on Albion's sacred land. This book has carefully (and poetically) mapped out the rhythms of creation in fusion with the living planet. It's a book that, with visionary ecstasy and careful corollary, maps, like all geomythical works, the plate tectonics of the Gaian soul.
As the author of “Spheres of Destiny” has a penchant for quoting pop music musicians this writer feels that he can finish this piece on a similar note. One of the sixties superstars was Donovan; he was a musician who inspired the hippies, who believed in Atlantis and who sang of ecology and harmonic balance before it was ''fashionable''. One of his most famous albums was titled ''A GIFT FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN''. This Zen-like phrase admirably sums up the magical work contained in this book. The flower is humanity, the Garden is Gaia, and the gift is Immortality - the true Gift of the Gods. Immortality is shown to us all in the endless cyclic beauty of the True God's transcendent creation.
~ Anthony Roberts ~
Anthony Roberts was one of the original and leading lights in the British Earth Mysteries Movement. He wrote several books, including Atlantean Traditions in Ancient Britain, Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon New Jerusalem, and Geomythics. Anthony and his wife, Janet, founded Zodiac House, a Small Press well known in the Earth Mysteries field for its series of original and thought provoking publications. Anthony and Robert Coon first met in 1981, due to their mutual interest and devotion to the spiritual mysteries centred at the major planetary sacred site of Glastonbury, England. Anthony has contributed to Robert's previous book Voyage To Avalon.
After Spheres of Destiny was written, Anthony Roberts died on Glastonbury Tor on 9th February 1990 - the day of a lunar eclipse.Anthony's story is thoroughly recorded in the tribute From Atlantis to Avalon and Beyond published by Zodiac House Publications, Glastonbury in September 1990.