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Geomantica 10 What's On Editorial Welcome to the first on-line only edition of Geomantica! Not such a satisfying experience, to have to read it on-screen, but a necessary part of economic rationalism, unfortunately. This issue has a good smorgasbord of articles mostly coming from South Australia, plus the conclusion to the fascinating interview with British geomancer John Billingsley and a piece on esoteric farming Indian style with Agnihotra. You will get a chance to read the paper versions of most of these when, after the next few weeks, I get them into print in the form of an updated book on geomancy in Australia plus a book on Towers of Power. Stay posted! These writing projects have been dragging out, with so much information to gather from far and wide, but I am now totally focussed on them. I will be glued to the computer, in fact, over the whole of the xmas/new year '. I'm hoping that 2001 will see the arrival of the 'New Stone Age', where the use of paramagnetic rock dusts to restore dead soils will become mainstream. It's already happening, with construction giant Boral having done extensive research and field trials, and now recognised as international leaders in the field. Enjoy the summer season and have a wonderful new milllenium! Alanna Moore
What's On Alanna Moore will be speaking and teaching at the following engagements: * Dowsing/Geomancy/Tower of Power workshop * Talk and slide show on Irish Round Towers and Power Towers
* Dowsing/Geomancy/Tower of Power workshop * Talks and workshops at 2nd National Opal Symposium, Cooper
Pedy, South Australia
Canberra - FENG SHUI Network Conference
Day At the RYDGES Hotel - Lake Michigan Room Participate in a wonderful Feng Shui day with professionals coming from all over Australia. 1 - Roseline Deleu (ACT) 'Feng Shui from the Black
Hat School view' 2 - Harald Tietze (NSW) 'Earth Energy Lines
their affect on our Health' 3 - Bethrene Laurenson (ACT) 'Interior Design and
Feng Shui Principles' 4 - Daryl Reeves (Vic) 'Electro Pollution' 5 - Steven Guth (ACT) 'The Energies of Canberra' 6 - Hermann von Essen ' Feng Shui for the Southern Hemisphere' 7 Jodi Brunner (Vic) 'Feng Shui tips' Speakers and their appearance may vary from this announcement.
EXPLORING AN EARTH VORTEX IN AUSTRALIA
Homa (fire) therapy is based on ancient Indian Vedic knowledge that has been revived, in India during the 1940's, in order to nourish and vitalise nature, neutralise pollution and disease. Homa farms are vibrant with enhanced life energies and often have been transformed from abused and degraded land by this spiritual service to nature. They attract happy birds and bees and provide a healing atmosphere for people too. I visited such a farm, Om Shree Dham, in springtime 2000. Serving nature Then, in 1994, they were spiritually guided to buy some land nearby. It was a very degraded and neglected property, flogged of goodness from wheat growing. It had also been over-grazed and the compacted sandy ground was concrete hard, with not a worm in sight. No rain could infiltrate and the existing orchard was languishing. The challenge to purify The important initial job was to start with the sunrise and sunset Agnihotra fires, to remove bad energy "The practise of Agnihotra removes the tainted energy layers, peels away the layers of history that lie like dust over the good energy beneath" said Lee. For three days Frits visited and made the special fires at dawn and dusk. After that the energy became clear. The Agnihotra fire awakened a latent but powerful energy of place and it has been performed there ever since. An oasis of life Local people who, thirty years ago were the owners of the property, came over to marvel at the place a few years back. "How come everything is so green and the soil is so moist?" they asked. Not far away where they live they have to irrigate constantly to get any growth, while Lee and Frits never need to irrigate. A friend who had had much experience of biodynamic farms said she had never seen such healthy, vibrant soil. And even though the region is plagued by rabbits, they are never a problem on this Homa farm. Agnihotra ash is used all over the farm as a health bringing tonic. It is sprinkled around the trunks of trees, broadcast over soil and made into a paste, with clay, to paint over any sickly tree trunks. Sick plants enjoy a spray of liquid Agnihotra ash, which cures disease and increases vitality. Subsequently the plants are abundant with flowers and fruit. To make this healing spray they fill a copper tub with water and add a handful of ash, then let it sit in the sun for three days. This is filtered and put into a spray pack for spraying foliage for up to three times a week until improvement occurs. Like a blessed oasis, even in a time of drought it can rain just over the farm, which is at the beginning of a valley. "With Agnihotra - nature is more nourished, more balanced and aligned with the Source" Frits explained. "With the raising of the vibrations of a place, a feedback of love and gratitude comes. And in ancient times they made these fires just to make it rain. Agnihotra draws down Divine energy and universal laws, harvests the prana from the solar range and enlivens the atmosphere, helping the plants to take it in." Parallels Towers of Power can help to neutralise electro-magnetic radiation from nearby power lines, according to my own research. So it was not surprising to learn that e-m radiation can be neutralised by Agnihotra ash too, as well as radioactivity and bacterial activity. The practise of biodynamics seems related too. The fire ash can act like a biodynamic fertiliser and is good to add to soil and compost heaps. "Yes, biodynamics works very well with Agnihotra. In fact if you put a pinch of the ash from the Agnihotra fire into the liquid 500, this will decrease the stirring time by half" Frits said. Effects of Agnihotra "Not only is plant life nourished, but disease is removed from the area and tension is removed from the mind making all meditation practises easier and the state of unconditional love becomes increasingly available to us. Not only does the performer benefit, but also the household and neighbourhood benefits as stress and pollution are undone" Lee and Frits have written. Tests have been done with bacterium cultures in agar-agar, they tell me. When exposed to the Agnihotra fires the bacteria levels were reduced by 80%. And, as already stated, the Homa practise is said to be effective in clearing radioactive contamination and e-m pollution. What is the Agnihotra fire technique? The strongest effects occur when the fire is practised in the centre of the room. The copper pyramid 'starts collecting healing energies in the room' and is left untouched until the next Agnihotra, except for emptying it. When done in a farm or garden, Agnihotra is practised at a point in the centre of the garden and also at the four corners, at the compass points. This intensifies the interplay of subtle energies. The pyramid should not sit on porcelain or metal, which can 'interrupt' the energies, a fact recognised by dowsers such as T.C. Lethbridge. "Metal interferes with the electromagnetic effect of Agnihotra and therefore no metal whatsoever should be kept nearby the copper pyramid" concurs Vasant, in the U.S. magazine Satsang. When performing Agnihotra you are meant to be sitting square to the pyramid and facing east, with the pyramid best kept square to the east, and always in the same orientation and sitting level. "It is from the direction of east that the flood of energies, electricities and ethers comes" says Vasant. During the fire practise healing energies are said to spiral upwards and eastwards out from the pyramid, while they also radiate outwards and are particularly thrust to the north. The best energy is radiated out from the east side, so this is the healing position to sit at. You can also put a lingam or healing stone or medicinal herbs close to the fire to charge them up. "In addition to other effects" says Vasant" at certain intervals bursts of energy emanate from the Agnihotra pyramid, depending on the phases of the moon and the position of the Earth in relation to the sun. These bursts of energy thrust nutrients and fragrance through the solar range and have a profound effect on the mind Tremendous amounts of energy are gathered around the Agnihotra copper pyramid just at Agnihotra time. A magnetic type field is created, one which neutralises negative types of energy and reinforces positive types of energy". When I attended an Agnihotra fire one afternoon I was aware that bursts of energy were pulsing out from the pyramid towards me, even before the fire had begun. At the precise times of sunrise and sunset there are special energies coming into play which are acted upon. These energies provide 'windows of opportunity' says Lee. Scientific investigation at stone circles in England- the Dragon Project- also reveal interesting energy patterns at these times, with anomalies in the ultrasonic and infrared sphere for a start. Other special meditations and fire rituals are conducted at the full and new moon times, some running for 24 hour long stretches. During these Homa practises prana is said to be drawn down from the solar range into the environment and the existent prana, depleted and distorted by pollution, is brought back into balance, into an ideal state. "Vitality and subtle nourishment is drawn into the environment on an enormous scale, enabling nature to heal itself. The basic effect reaches up to 12 km into the atmosphere and up to one kilometre around the copper pyramid" Lee said. Homa farms elsewhere To reinforce the basic Agnihotra fires in such highly diseased areas extra Homas and techniques are recommended. A related Homa practise, with different mantras and not tied to sunrise and sunset, is performed daily to fortify the energy field created by Agnihotra. A resonant point is established on the farm being an inverted copper pyramid charged with certain mantras and buried a half metre underground, with another, charged with different mantras, that is placed directly above on a column of soil. This helps to anchor the energies even more. On the Peruvian farms the Homa resonance point was installed and the farmers began to practise the basic fires twice daily. "After only a week I began to observe that my plantain trees began to develop very green healthy leaves" one farmer reported. After 4 months of application of the Homa therapy the pathogens had all disappeared and there was a subsequent increase in production, with bigger crops of larger fruit with better taste, colour and texture. Also the vegetative cycle was shortened by 40%. Neighbouring plantations also registered rejuvenating effects and people with conditions such as asthma and skin problems were finding, after sitting by the fires and inhaling the healing smoke, and also applying ash to themselves mixed with ghee, that they were experiencing all sorts of remarkable healing. A pinch of ash taken internally every day can be a great prophylactic medicine. 'Pillars of fire' The lingams represent the god Shiva, who is the creative force of the universe and they are sometimes referred to as 'pillars of fire', referring to their yang nature. Together with the yoni stone you have the harmony of yang balanced with yin, the Shiva/Shakti balance. Meditation with such a lingam is facilitated, because it is said that it is a tuning device into the higher self. It can help to awaken one's kundalini force and give freedom from subconscious patterning. Sizes range from little pendant sized lingams, which, if worn constantly, have a permanent healing influence on the aura; to great omphalos types at a metre or so tall, which can act as energy generators for entire regions. These earthy coloured stones often have beautiful patterns and are said to be formed of a combination of basalt, agate and quartz. There are several large ones installed in the A.C.T. and some have been positioned to act as interplanetary energy portals. Lee and Frits have some beautiful lingams from India's holy
Narmada River. This river is likened to a Universal Mother Goddess,
who is the nurturing, nourishing aspect of Divinity. When in meditation the idea is to cup the lingam in your lap,
with the right hand under the left, allowing the lingam to rest
upright against the abdomen. This helps to free the flow of energies
up the spine and focus on the ever deepening awakening of the
heart chakra. "Like cosmic receiving stations, under the
principle of 'like attracts like' they channel healing to Mother
Earth, helping to raise the kundalini of the planet" I was
told. There is also a Satsang Australia magazine, that they are a contact for. Homa Therapy Association of Australia: http://www.summit.net/home/Agnihotra
The Saga of Hindmarsh Island Stories from the Ancient Time One day, smelling fish cooking- which was taboo for Ngarrindjeri
women- he knew his wives must be near, so he rushed off in further
pursuit. The huts he left behind were turned into hills and his
canoe shot up into the heavens to become the Milky Way. His wives
made a raft to escape and dashed across Lake Albert, where their
raft was turned into reeds and trees. Still in hot pursuit, at
Kingston Ngurunderi met a sorceror, and a great battle between
them took place. Defeating and killing his enemy, the burnt body
came to be marked by granite boulders. Ngurunderi then travelled
along the Coorong. At each camp site he dug into the sand to
find fresh water and fished. He continued past the Murray Mouth
and Victor Harbour, still searching for his wives. More granite
islands were formed at Victor Harbour where he threw his spear
and at King's Beach a bluff was formed where he threw his club.
His wives heard all the noise and fled across the (then) land
bridge to Kangaroo Island. He saw them fleeing and called up
the waters to drown them. And so they were swept into the sea
and turned into the Pages Islands. At this point Ngurunderi knew
that his time to join the spirits was coming soon. He dived into
the sea to cleanse his spirit and went up into the sky. He can
still be seen today as a very bright star. Kumarangk Dreaming Kumarangk is the ancient name for Hindmarsh Island and in the Ngarrindjeri language this means 'the points'. There are many celestial associations on the island places linked to Venus, Jupiter, the Southern Cross, possibly Mars and most importantly the Seven Sisters/Plieides. At the closest point to the port town of Goolwa on the mainland there is a very important point the Nonpoonga, the 'ancient place of the golden sun on the water', where time is measured. At the spring equinox the sun and the moon shine down at this point and it is also the meeting place of the salt and fresh waters at that time of year. The location of the meeting of the waters changes throughout the year, or it used to. Goolwa means 'mixed water'. At either side of what is now the vehicle ferry between Goolwa and Kumarangk there used to be caves, now either hidden, lost or destroyed. These are, or were, an important part of the dreaming because this is where the great spirit Ngurunderi camped whilst giving out the Law to the people of the area. It's a site central to the formation of the Ngarrindjeri Nation. As if the ferry structure isn't bad enough, now a half built bridge spans between the island and mainland this is the bridge which the Ngarrindjeri people have been resisting for nearly ten years and has caused so much heartache .With the destruction of the Nonpoonga, for the sun shadow will not be seen again when the bridge is completed, the continuity of the tradition of that ancient time will be no more. Part of the island's dreaming importance involves 'secret women's business', the revealing of which could attract a tribal death sentence. Traditionally the dissemination of Ngarrundjeri (and other tribal) knowledge is restricted on the basis of age, gender, family affiliation, aptitude and connection with place. So it has been the subject of dispute between the developers and anti-developers, with the pro-developer media lapping it up. (I have seen one newspaper refer to it as the 'Hindmarsh Island concoction'.)The island women have had years of bullying, and the divisive tactics employed on them have caused some rifts. Yet the general significance of the island to the women, that a dreaming story involving the presence of the Seven Sisters at Kumarangk in Ngarringjeri land and legend, has been documented from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Dreaming tracks Beyond Kumarangk and further along the path of the Ngurunderi dreaming track a curious phenomena has come about. At Yankalilla there is an Anglican Church where light phenomena and apparitions have manifested on the walls. Said to be located near a massacre site as well as the dreaming track, what looks like ancient writing and figures have been appearing on the church walls - a Madonna and child figure, with an Aboriginal man peering over her shoulder, for one. A World of Richness Once one of the most densely populated regions in Aboriginal Australia the environment was so rich, that Ngarrindjeris had no need for a nomadic lifestyle. The people lived in their 'wylies'- solid wattle and daub structures, on the southern shore of Kumarangk in the summer, and on the more sheltered northern shore of the island during winter. Their food sources were endless, until the white man came and cleared much of the island, for wheat and grazing. No management plan! Associate Professor Dr John Noye explained that the State Government plan to build the $6.4 million bridge would cause serious environmental damage. Noye is an expert on computing coastal tides and currents and their effects on beach erosion, fish larvae movement and the like. He spoke of the fragility of the coastal, estuarine and riverine environments, and the fact that many bird species are on the decline. Already, in '93, the numbers of visitors were contributing to environmental degradation. The barrages that were put in place between 1939-40 have caused steady siltation, restricting water movement between the sea and the estuary. The Murray Mouth had became completely blocked by the mid 1980's. The area is also faced with ever deteriorating water quality due to increasing salinity plus chemicals and fertilisers finding their way into the river upstream and accumulating in the Murray Mouth lakes, causing toxic blooms and making water undrinkable even for cattle. The area urgently needs a management plan, said Noye. "Putting a large housing development in and attracting hordes of day trippersmakes little sense." What the Women say 'Hindmarsh Island is, and always was, a place of spiritual, cultural and heritage importance to Ngarrindjeri people and in particular women. It is part of the Seven Sisters and therefore is a place of importance for all Aboriginal women. I have seen and continue to see the pain, suffering and struggle of the Ngarrindjeri women in the fight to protect Kumarangk and it breaks my heart. But no matter what they throw at them (Court cases, Royal Commission, Lies, Discrediting etc) the spirit and belief of the people are strong and remain strong." Sandra Saunders, traditional owner. Bridge history The Ngarrindjeri women began their battle. As custodians they were simply fulfilling their responsibility to protect their sacred traditions and places. An Inquiry into the Hindmarsh Island Bridge Project was tabled in 1993 by the Environment, Resources and Development Committee of the South Australian Parliament, having involved the local community and all major political parties. The committee found unanimously against the bridge, but the State Labor Government ignored the recommendations to protect the island and oppose the bridge. During the next state election campaign the Liberal Party opposed the bridge. Samuel Jacobs QC was appointed to investigate the bridge's legal and contractual issues only. His report was never released. The new State Liberal Government decided that likely litigation and compensation costs would be too great if they reneged on the bridge deal, so they quickly changed their stand. In 1994 the Lower Murray Aboriginal Heritage Committee applied for protection of the site from federal authorities, because the State Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, while agreeing that there were significant heritage sites at risk, used special powers under the State Aboriginal Heritage Act to authorise damage to them and allow the bridge's construction. The Federal Government subsequently accepted Professor Cheryl Saunder's findings on the matter and, on 10/7/94 banned the bridge for 25 years. This decision was then overturned on legal technical grounds. In 1995 a Royal Commission was established by the State Liberal Government to investigate whether the secret women's business was fabricated. This was the first time in Australian history that a Royal Commission was used to investigate Aboriginal beliefs. The women refused to participate. The Government was forced by the Supreme Court to go back and consult the Ngarrindjeri people in an appropriate manner and found that 85% of Ngarrandjeri people were opposed to the Royal Commission and to being forced to divulge sensitive cultural information. Public opposition also came from many other quarters. The Royal Commission ending up by deciding that the whole of the women's business was a fabrication. Despite the State Liberal Government's keen acceptance of the report its legitimacy has been questioned, for its terms of reference were inappropriate and denied basic human rights of religious freedom. The subsequent Mathew's Inquiry showed that a number of the Royal Commission's findings were wrong. An attempt to have the Commission made subject to a Judicial review foundered because a State Government Act disallows any review process at all. Another attempt was made to apply for protection under the Federal Heritage Act in 1996. Justice Jane Mathews was appointed to investigate, but a change in government brought in a new Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and thence Senator Herron refused to appoint a female Minister to read the report. On those grounds the Ngarrindjeri women refused to include evidence that they felt was sensitive, for women only. Mathew's report verified that the Seven Sisters Dreaming Story was connected to the Ngarrindjeri lands, with documentation from long back, refuting the Royal Commission's finding on this matter. But when her report was finished she was deemed, as a judge , to be ineligible to have carried out the inquiry and her report was ruled ineffective. In 1996 Justice Elizabeth Evatt was appointed by the then Federal Labor Government's Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Robert Tickner, to report on the effectiveness of heritage legislation. Of the Federal Heritage Act she reported that "The Act should recognise and respect Aboriginal customary law restrictions on information about significant areas. The (present) Act does not protect confidential information or respect Aboriginal spirituality or beliefs which require that confidentiality be maintained. Aboriginal people want the Act to be maintained and strengthened." Once again a change of government came about before her report was completed, and so, inspite of her findings, little has changed with the Act to protect confidential beliefs. Having twice attempted to gain protection from the Federal Heritage Act, the Ngarrindjeri again requested that the Minister conduct an investigation, as required by the Heritage Act. Instead they got the Hindmarsh Island Bridge Bill which Senator Herron introduced to parliament. This was passed in early 1997 and had the effect of preventing the Minister from making any orders under the Heritage Protection Act relating to the bridge. The Ngarrindjeri then challenged the constitutionality of this new Act in the High Court. The court case was given a high public profile because of the possibility that it might have a bearing on future legal challenges to John Howard's Wik 10 point plan (in relation to Aboriginals' gaining of title to their sovereign lands). The Ngarrindjeri plaintiffs lost their case. The High Court ruled that the Bridge Act was an amendment to an already existing Act and that if Parliament had the power to make a law, it must follow that Parliament had the power to unmake it. Now, in 2000 we see the marina developers Tom and Wendy Chapman suing for $20 million damages that they claim they suffered when construction of the bridge was halted. And this case has been going on for over 6 months. The judge has been hearing evidence about the secret women's business before an all women court room but wants the secret details recorded on camera. Eminent American anthropologist Prof Diane Bell, director of women's studies at George Washington University in Washington, DC, has been giving evidence. "I have come to conclusions that the Hindmarsh Island, Murray Mouth area has significance to women and that there are Ngarrindjeri women and men who believe a bridge threatens the health of women, the social order and the land" she stated. Bell is the author of the book 'Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin a world that is, was and will be' (The Advertiser 16/8/00) Meanwhile the bridge construction budget has already blown out by $6 million or more and who is going to pay? The Government? The Council who signed the Deed without a management plan? Or will the island have to pay, by being cut up to pay for the infrastructure by way of the Deed?. Bad Vibes There have been rumours of destroyed burial sites as well, but threat of litigation has made many people reticent to talk about such things. Geomantically speaking Kumarangk clearly felt like a place of power. A very powerful ley line was apparent over the Murray Mouth and this, I was told is one of the dreaming tracks. As well, the island seems to be affected by a magnetic anomaly, as various old measurements of the island have been 1000 yards out, and the shoreline hasn't changed that dramatically to explain this discrepancy. I feel that the issue of Hindmarsh Island is a classic, if not extreme, example of the conflict between Aboriginal tradition and the pressures of inappropriate development. It has not been properly handled and the government record is atrocious. Cultural genocide is happening, with the power of the dollar prevailing. Democracy and religious freedom have been bulldozed out of sight. How can Australia speak of reconciliation with Aboriginal people when a problem such as this has not been resolved? The Ngarrindjeri nation is still fighting, now in the international courts in Geneva. But what real power does the United Nations have to yield? The Australian Government has already ignored other UN recommendations in regard to indigenous rights. It's a sorry state of affairs. Tom Treverrow, a softly spoken Ngarrindjeri elder feels that this cause is probably lost and the whole affair has greatly embittered the Ngarrindjeri community. Discovering Ngarrindjeri Culture In the words of the Kumarangk Coalition, in a statement prepared for their Long Walk- "This is a journey for peace where as a family we strengthen our bonds of love and trust. A journey of knowledge handed down from generation to generation. A journey of creation, of spirituality, customs, culture and languages. So it is in this spirit of true reconciliation that we pledge to protect our heritage, the legacy for our children and the children of generations to come. To continue our commitments to shared beliefs, our sense of each other and our intimacy with the land, our mother. We in all conscience, STAND AGAIN, in another non-violent protest, to honour the spirits of our ancestors, our Elders of time immemorial, those for whom we continue the struggle for justice."
References: Update: In December the Government announced a $375 million package to help the Snowy and Murray Rivers. Some of this may be spent on removing the barrages at the Murray Mouth to help restore the orginal flow pattern.
Journeys with the Spirit of Place JB: "I originally come from London and in 1975 I came to this valley, the Hebden Bridge area of west Yorkshire. A series of coincidences brought me the information that there was cheap property in the area. It all started on top of Glastonbury Tor one Easter in 1975 when I was sleeping on top of the Tor with 25 other people and made some good friends, and following connections from there I got on a sort of wave that carried me up to this area in August. This was the first house we looked at, and although we looked at lots more and thought it was in terrible condition - this was the one! Bought it for 1,100 pounds, and prices like that made Hebden Bridge a focus for alternative culture. People in the '70s came here in droves. It was a depopulated area then, but now the demographics are a different thing. So I moved here to a village called Mytholmroyd, which is close to Minchely Moor. Minchely Moor reveals itself A few other odd experiences happened. The first time I heard a curlew it flew up behind me about 15 yards away and it uttered the most mournful cry that it seemed to me like a message from some other world... At Minchely Moor there is a standing stone, not an ancient one, but one that is a tremendous focus for folklore. There are bronze age sites and an earth circle, so it is an ancient landscape, but not much is left and I keep finding myself drawn there. There was one time in 1978 when I had taken a mind altering substance and been driven to walk across Minchely Moor in a hail storm. I felt impelled to climb up there and eventually found myself walking along, head down to keep the hail out, and I found myself following a path that seemed to be going around in a circle. And when I looked up I discovered myself in what turned out to be a bronze age earth circle. So it turned out it be a new archeological site. When I went to Japan in 1980's I found myself going there to ask permission to make that decision, so I'd developed a tremendous relationship with the whole area, particularly with Minchely Moor. I went to Japan in the '80's and in the '90's I came back and began to visit Minchely Moor again. I eventually discovered several other bronze age structures, including a cairn circle, a cairn field and two possible standing stones. So what we are looking at now at Minchely Moor is a bronze age ritual landscape. It's been there for years, much of it hidden by heather. But for me it seems that Minchely Moor has been saying to me ever since 1975 'I'm going to show you something'. And these are the experiences which underpin my spiritual relationship with the area, my very close relationship with the spiritual atmosphere of Minchely Moor and those beings that interact. Terrestial zodiac As I said before, in the '70's a lot of alternative people were setting up and there was a strong alternative feel and pagan movement here, so it felt like there was a good alternative community here. When I came back to Mytholmroyd in the '90's it seemed that something was lost, the centre had been lost. I suppose in keeping with the Thatcher years people had become more materialistic, more self seeking. The old hippies were buying and selling houses and making profits from that and there was just something that had gone. People who had been involved in alternative spirituality had become born-again-Christians. One of them even said to me 'John, the goddess is no longer strong in this valley, it's Jesus that's strong here now.' It didn't seem a positive direction and I was dismayed that the centre wouldn't hold, that the centre was spilling out everywhere and nothing alternative seemed to have kept going. So one of the things I did soon after moving back was to reawaken interest in the terrestial zodiac and I organised a series of guided walks around each sun sign, walking around the corresponding figure on the terrestial zodiac. There soon gathered a core group of 5 or 6 people and we followed the sun in its movement through the year around the terrestial zodiac. The reasoning behind this was because it was a possible way of creating a magical ring around the landscape, of possibly holding the energy in and allowing it to grow again. I didn't know if it would work or not, but it would be good to do anyway. Each of the walks that we did was accompanied by odd little coincidences, curious things, like a lamb that just detached itself from a flock of sheep and came over to this group of some 25 people. It's not like it mistook us for its father or anything. It actually came over to be greeted by us, to the great consternation of its mother. And that happened on Aries, the figure of the lamb. And as we went around the guardian figure of the crow, one of the group found on a little hill that forms the head of the crow a perfect skull of a crow just there. Just little things like that, trivia, kept happening, that kept reinforcing the sign that we were walking on. It was on Gemini one really awful rainy cold day that we briefly stopped and looked back over the landscape we had walked. And as I looked back where we had walked, the land just seemed to breathe. It was 30 seconds of an impression, but this kind of thing happened as we were doing this and as we came up to the end, back to the first sign, which was the guardian spirit, the crow, several of us got independently the image forming in our brains of a kind of brooch, or a clasp of a brooch, a circuit if you like, coming together. So it was like making a connection. The final thing we did was to gather around this standing stone on Minchely Moor in a ring and that was the act that seemed to fasten the circle. Hebden Bridge since then, in the last nine years has had a lot of ventures started and they keep going and it's very alternative. The born-again-Christian movement is almost nowhere nowadays and a lot of pagan groups are back as well as complementary health people. So alternative and forward looking ideas are now flourishing in Hebden Bridge. It would be nice to think that this year of magical walks around the terrestial zodiac has had some part to play. The terrestial zodiac in an area is the result of some kind of unconscious communion between peoples' work and action and imagination and some other wider energy. What that energy is I don't need to know and I don't ask. If it works - let it happen. By us doing it, people put out waves which affect positively the area that we live in. In a sense I feel that this is what is needed to be done with all terrestial zodiacs. That people should be getting out, putting their boots on and actually walking the zodiac, not waffling on about them, and just talking or writing articles about them, but actually putting themselves in contact with the land. There's nothing to prove on terrestial zodiacs. They were not engineered, they're not totally wishful thinkingsome might be wishful thinking, but not the ones with good designs. They exist in this limbo territory between the real and imagination and that's an area where some good positive energy can be created and maintained. People and land working together, creating something which is far more than either could do consciously. AM: So what have you been doing in the folklore area? JB: My first interest in earth mysteries was mainly archeological and folklore. But the more I got involved with earth mysteries the more my interests shifted to folklore, and its role in building and maintaining aspects of community. Community, of course, is an important focus for alternative culture, so I grew away from archeology. I began to realise that to help keep alive community I could tell the stories and help keep the folklore alive and I tend to focus on two areas. One is stories about place, because I think they are very important, they need to be told and retold, preferably at the place, when going on walks and providing some archeological background as well. So keeping the stories alive is important to me and in a sense I'm saying thank you to the land which is feeding me all this information as well. There's a story telling group in Hebden Bridge and anyone can come and hear these stories. Secondly - I'm gathering and writing up the local legends and putting them in one place because there's not much left of the underlying basic Yorkshire culture, what with all the new people coming here from all over. We can learn from the land and the older people here. I'm not doing so much of this now, more so in the 1970's. I get snippets from the older people, and I'm going to be giving a talk soon where I will be asking the people of Mytholmroyd to help me gather the stories. But you do have the situation where I am a (relative) outsider coming in and asking them about their traditions and some or most people don't want to tell them to me. So far what I have learnt most are things that are told to me in casual conversations and not as a result of me asking them directly. This is an important point. I suspect I would have to spend a lot more time in pubs for more to be divulged! It takes at least a generation before you are accepted around here, so who knows?" AM "You have had people tell you about fairies, can you elaborate on that?" JB "Well it wasn't so much in this area that this has been expressed, but not far away. And I have the experience myself of seeing, feeling, hearing, being in contact with something that is explicable in terms of traditional fairy lore and that's putting it on the fence as much as I can. But about 15 miles from here is the Cottingley village near Bradford, where the famous Cottingley fairy photographs were taken at the beginning of this century. Now these photos were hoaxes, with the exception of one of them. One of the girls said it was a hoax and the other one said it wasn't all a hoax. Generally speaking the whole affair could be put down to a hoax by the girls and there the matter could rest, but one of our Northern Earth readers lives in Cottingley and she's made contact with some of the older people there and some of the old ladies there said to her 'oh yes, there are fairies in that area', they all knew that. 'They aren't the ones in the pictures but they are there'. Cottingley these days is rather dirty and polluted however there have been other more recent fairy reports from Cottingley, so it seems that its something of a fairy hot spot. So what does this mean? Are the fairies returning to these old industrial places? Were they frightened away and are they now coming back, just like the otters and kites are? Or have they always been there and are they becoming more familiar to us. But at the moment there seems to be a growing awareness and experience of what you could broadly call the fairy realm. What it is we don't know. There are plenty of theories, theories that you can make anything you like from. But people are coming into contact with some sort of energy, which seems to have a close association with the spirit of place. This suggests that as a culture we are coming a little bit closer to the spiritual dimension. What I'm now wanting to do is look at the fairies of Yorkshire and gather together the stories about them and do a book about them and bring them back in a way, by acknowledging their presence. Some of the reports may be just imagination or wishful thinking, but some of them have a very strong testimony, but how do we deal with it is another matter. Of course, we are not supposed to believe in fairies, 'they don't exist' we are told, but the fact remains that over the years many people, and not just in this country, have been seeing fairies. So what do we do with such a weight of evidence? I think we need to re-examine it through the lens of tradition, it's a more positive way than viewing it merely from a, say, new age perspective. We need the weight of past generations to help us to understand this phenomena and to help us to make contact with them. Today's approach to fairies is to imagine them as little light fay creatures who are only interested in doing good. But if you look at fairy tradition you know that fairies are amoral. They don't want to help us particularly, they're just getting on with their job and sometimes it involves stealing human babies, sometimes it involves creating accidents, if we interfere with their living areas. We know that the fairies aren't that nice. We really need to know that before we go trying to make contact. We should go and ask them to tell us about themselves instead of going in with our assumptions. So this whole fairy thing has several layers of meaning. But this area of existences of the unseen is very difficult to deal with and for someone to impose their own beliefs and interpretations and it's very hard to come at it with a completely open mind. This is also where earth mysteries has its strongest effect in that it tries not to come at something from a reductionist, academic viewpoint, and not from a too wide open and credulous viewpoint, which we find too much in the new age area. It's about trying to find the area inbetween, whereby you can experience something and then see what might be contributing to that and find what the best way of interacting with that. It's the ordinary person's holistic way of dealing with the sacred world around them. Because when it comes down to it - earth mysteries primarily deals with sacred landscapes and sacred traditions." AM "So will you continue with this work of reconnecting with the land?" JB "Yes. In a sense I don't have a choice. When I started finding the archeological sites at Minchely Moor it was just at time when I was thinking of moving away from the valley and suddenly I had found another five new sites and I had to deal with the fact that I had been shown these and at that point I realised I couldn't move away that easily. I had asked permission to move away and that permission wasn't coming. So for me the interaction with place here has remained and now I've actually bought a new house which is closer to Minchely Moor and is also tied up with a sense of being called to that place, so I can't see myself leaving now until I get called to somewhere else. So for me it's being open to what the land is saying to me. I'll continue to write about the local landscape and traditions and I'll probably continue to do the walks which integrate the two, telling the stories of the places and running this magazine, unless another editor appears, which hasn't happened yet. But it's too old and venerable to let it die, and with so many similar magazines dropping off Northern Earth is one of the few left to keep these traditions alive. It's the only organ of holistic free thinking interpretation of place, that steers this middle line between too much empiricism and too much credulity. So it's got to keep going, although I'm getting a bit tired and could do with a break." AM "You're doing a great job, thanks John!"
Reporting on Towers of Power in South Australia Ever since Professor Callahan came to Australia and told us about his amazing discoveries of the biological effects of paramagnetism, I have been studying the paramagnetic rock dusts of Australia and have built over 55 Towers of Power across the country. Seven years later and the subject is even becoming mainstream, with companies such as the construction giant Boral getting in on the act (marketing highly paramagnetic rock dusts to farmers and gardeners). But it seems that the subject is baggaged with a fair amount of hype attached. To get to the basics I have travelled to Ireland to study the Irish Round Towers and am writing a book on the subject. In August 2000 I travelled to South Australia to study some of the many Towers that have been built there. The Towers were constructed with a view to enhance crop growth and improve soil moisture. Imagine my disappointment when, together with English dowser Tom Graves and Dean Gentilin of Port Lincoln, I travelled around the southern Eyre Peninsula to check out several large farms with massive concrete Towers, only to find out that most of them were not working as expected. The farmers were pretty much unhappy with them too. What could have gone wrong? 1) Inappropriate materials or construction? Also sometimes the specifications of construction were not always followed by the farmers who built them. And were the metal or concrete caps that I saw having the most appropriate angle? Dowsing can be of assistance here. 2) Wrong energy point? All the Towers seen in S.A. were located on energy line crossings, but these were not necessarily water lines. The crossing points that had a downward vortex associated with them were in the minority. All the Power Towers located over the downward vortex were beneficially effective in some degree, or at the worst, just non-effective. The quality of the energy emanating from Towers located over a positive vortex was quite different, at worst it made you feel sick. Often the pendulum described an unusual star/flower patterned elliptical rotation in response to the energy field of the upward vortex another indication of the difference in quality. 3) Inappropriate location? I don't think any sensible dowsing protocol was applied in this case, i.e. "May I, Should I, Can I?" is a good starting point before beginning the dowsing work. I usually get a 'no' if asking about the appropriateness of placing a Tower in amongst established trees, as this one was. It would seem to be unnecessary in any case, especially if Towers are a substitute for trees, as some people assert. 4) Wrong motivation? 5) Geological interference? What was causing this? It seemed fairly obvious when I studied what was happening on the ground. At the point where the energy field petered out was where a belt of limestone started up and there was limestone all over the rest of the paddock around the little hill. Being a highly diamagnetic stone, I can only conclude that the paramagnetic field of the Tower was cancelled out by the large amount of diamagnetic limestone present. The answer to this problem is, of course, to spread paramagnetic rock dust over the paddock, and this is always recommended to maximise the efficiency of the Tower. Of course it's a lot harder to do than just build a Tower, which some people may expect to give a 'quick fix' to their crops. Unfortunately the Eyre Peninsula doesn't have gravel crushing quarries where suitable rock dust may be cheaply available. 6) Minor disturbances I am also aware that in some cases in my experience plants and animals have rapidly died after the Tower was constructed. I put this down to the fact that the trees in question were already sick and the process was speeded up by the Tower. Imagine a bacterial infection, for instance. The bacteria would be powering in the new energy field. In Hahndorf a poor old dog with cancer that had been lingering and suffering for several weeks was dead in a few days after the Tower went up there. I would think that a good result. 7) Fence line interference? 8) Ethics and ownership? This question is particularly relevant when we intend to tune the energy field of the Tower to only be of benefit to certain crops. It might even antagonise other plants. Some people have even thought about broadcasting pesticides via their Tower If a Tower was transmitting 'bad' energy beyond our boundaries, what then? As I'm told that one S.A. Tower had the effect of making the grape vines it was supposed to be enhancing sicken this could have serious consequences. One could perhaps even be sued by the neighbours! So I reckon the idea of owning the energies we are responsible for and keeping them neatly within our boundaries is very important. I have heard of a S.A. farmer who is, in fact, in the process of suing the person who designed and located a Power Tower for them that has had no discernible effects on their crops. They paid out a hefty fee for the service and, understandably, want to get their money back. The credibility and respectability of all geomancers is compromised if too much of this sort of thing happens. Conclusion I don't want to sound like a sceptic, but a healthy dose of sceptism never goes astray. I am convinced of the value of further experimentation with Power Towers and think that scientifically styled research is long overdue in this field. Properly controlled field trials need to set up, so that farmers can embrace the technology with confidence in the future. I have seen all sorts of wonderful effects gained from the Towers, some mediocre, and some non-effects. I am very keen to learn more of the 'bad' effects that people have experienced, because this is how we learn to get it right. I would appreciate any correspondence on this subject, preferably by snail mail or email. Contact Alanna Moore |