February 2008
the free E-magazine of dowsing & geomancy,
in Australasia and beyond. Edited by Alanna Moore.
The Dark God Crom, the Sun Goddess and their Corn Maiden Child
by Alanna Moore
Welcome to the February 2008 edition of Geomantica,
Uploaded on St Brigid's Day in Ireland, the first day of spring, February 1st. (Read on for more on things Irish, in my Harvest Deities article.) And quickly uploaded too, for finally ADSL broadband has arrived to the Geomantica office and there's a flurry of 21st century technology flooding in! Another modern convenience is Paypal, now also available for making payments. Until it's all sorted, just send an email with your orders.
Lots of great words to savour in this edition. So many more in the pipeline, more new films are out and more coming too!
Enjoy the feast!
Until May
Peace and bright blessings
Tower-rific News!!
Dear Geomantica
We have erected two new towers with amazing results! The first
at the calf shed and second in the weaner paddock (the Evans
business is raising weaner calves, ed.) resulted in several facts
emerging.
1. Health we have not observed any scours
in the calves since erection and also have improved appetites.
2. Behaviour immediately the calves became calmer and more
placid
3. Less smell and flies.
At another site for calves weaned from their mothers, normal reaction to weaning is extreme noise and nervousness, but after 12 hours these calves had calmed to the extent that they stood around me without fear!
Yours,
Arnold Evans, Kyabram.
Biodynamic rain-making
Hi Alanna
Thank you for your email. I was able to obtain a copy of Stone Age Farming and the Wisdom of Water from a Melbourne bookshop.
I found them both fascinating reading, especially as you made connections that I had been playing with. As we had the moon in Pisces, I tried Hugh Lovel's BD combination and we had 45 mls of rain instead of it going around us as has been the pattern this year.
Would you be available/interested to visit our farm and/or run a workshop near Wagga in the not too distant future? .
I look forward to year from you.
Rosemary
Getting the other side of the story
(This letter is in relation to an item on allegations about Christan Hummel in a past issue of Geomantica, Ed)
To Geomantica
I did not ever use Perelandra's technique in violation of copyright. Where I referred to their technique I gave full credit. Where I used my own modifications and interpretations, it did not fall within the parameters of copyright protection. In fact, it is this modification of their methods which upset them. At the time I was given notification of their dissatisfaction, in September, 1998, even though I had legal right to continue, I respected their request and discontinued using any of their techniques or any resemblance to them and did as you have queried, went to the devas directly. You could have known this if you interviewed any of my 150 participants who graduated from any of my workshops in Australia, if you'd asked me, or if you'd asked for a copy of the clearing technique that 4 of my trained facilitators are using in Australia.
As to Slim Spurling's public "disassociation"
as you call it, yes he has had this statement on his website
erroneously since October, 2000. However calling something a
pig does not make it so. If you had looked at his claim of our
stealing his tools and manufacturing them abroad as he claims,
then looked at our site you could see for yourself that it is
not true. Even if I WERE "stealing" his tools or manufacturing
them abroad has he has erroneously claimed for 7 years, they
have no COPYRIGHT or PATENT and so are not protected. In fact,
he instructs people on how to make these tools on a public video
for any who wish to do so.
Sincerely,
Christan Hummel
Ecopopulist Threat
I am constantly frustrated by a doctrine that
I call 'ecopopulism'. It acknowledges on an appallingly basic
level the changes happening to Earth as a direct result of human
intervention but advocates life-denying measures such as fluorescent
lighting and microwave ovens. All change, claim the advocates
of this sad theory, is due to measurable factors. Thus the true
spiritual crisis can be overlooked.
Antony Riddelll
PS Maybe I should add: they are acting in Earth's name, but seem to ignore it. I call 'Friends of the Earth' - ' Acquaintances of the Earth'.
Back to the top
* Biological Farming gets a boost
Dr Maarten Stapper, the ex-CSIRO scientist and expert on organic what production, who has generously shared his writings with Geomantica in the past, has now launched into the commercial world and is undertaking a speaking tour of regional South Australia and the Wimmera, Victoria from February 3rd - 8th 2008. Find out how to be kind to your soils and save money on fertiliser too. Information at www.lawrie.com.au
* Sorry, at last!!
The new Rudd Government plans to say "sorry" to the stolen generations of Aboriginal people on behalf of the federal government this February 13th. It's a small but necessary step towards healing the pain caused by past, misguided government policies which fractured Aboriginal families and sowed the seeds of dysfunction in the following generations.
* Living your architecture
Peter Cowman's Australian tour, spreading the word on l'iving architecture', has started most auspiciously, with 80 people attending his first talk on January 26th. Held at the Castlemaine Community House, there was standing room only for many and it was the venue's biggest ever crowd!
One listener afterwards emailed Geomantica
to offer "heartfelt thanks for his sincere and inspiring
talk last weekend.
He certainly held his large audience enthralled in spite of the
heat and lack of oxygen!"
There's still the chance to catch Peter in
central Victoria this February, with a few places left in both
his introductory day and his three day course. These events are
hosted by Geomantica, so for more information - email: info@geomantica.com
Two new films and a re-shuffle of the Geomancy Today film series so that one of those films can be in the new series. And you can 'try before you buy', with shortened versions now available to see on You Tube. (Yes, broadband has finally made it's way into the Geomantica office!)
NEW in 'Geomancy Today' film series
- Part Four: 'Helping the Devas' 26 minutes.
Find out how Swedish dowsers are working with the landscape beings such as Trolls, in their state-of-the-art Earth healing work; and how people in Sydney engaged the devas to help set the scene for a joyful and peaceful event at the Sydney Olympics.
'State of Pilgrimage' film series
So new it'still mostly in the pipeline!
This film series aims to explore sacred landscapes around the world with the people who know them or who are coming to know them. They visit the sacred sites in a state of pilgrimage, to honour and respect them; to listen, watch and learn from them. A travelogue of the outer and inner worlds, voyaging through mythos and experience, and connecting deeply with country.
A sacred ceremonial landscape in Ireland's heartland is threatened by a big motorway development. See how people have been protesting there, including conducting a Druidic ritual of protection; and find out what role the Opus Dei organisation and people like U.S. Dick Cheney have to play in why it is happening, despite EU condemnation.. Practical geomancy at it's most radical edge.
The Dark God Crom, the Sun Goddess and their Corn Maiden Child
The animistic paradigm
In the dimension of the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime (also
known as The Dreaming), the most ancient of continuing spiritual
traditions, all places are sacred, but some are much more sacred
than others. The Aboriginal sagas of mythos are of a vast totemic
nature, emphasising the connection between all beings in nature
and seeing nature as ecological guilds of conscious life forces
at play.
The landscape is said to be created, or brought to life, by the first culture heroes' naming of the place. This is often a time when the place takes on its unique layers of identity as, and when, sacred 'place-events' occur, including episodes in the lives of the gods/goddesses/Dreaming heroes. These supernatural beings infuse the deepest of meaning to Country, such as is only fully revealed to initiated adults. The Dreamtime continuum may have started in earliest times, but it also flows into the present; for The Dreaming is more of an other-dimensional reality than just a simple time-frame.
This Dreaming provides us with a contemporary model to help us understand many, if not all, of the most ancient forms of animist spirituality on the planet. Even christianity is not immune to such influences and, within it's supposedly anti-pagan tenets, aspects of totemism are strongly evident, as the identification of Jesus with the bread (sacred grain) and wine would indicate.
Recycling the gods
Over in Ireland, place legends and names also reveal, to initiated
observation, ancient animistic traditions of sacredness, including
associations with divine figures who personify the wisdom/consciousness
and fruitfulness of the land. As in Australia, the Irish people
revered their sacred sites, maintaining traditions of sacred
pilgrimage to places, especially springs and hilltops, through
thousands of years.
However, unlike in Australia, Ireland has been invaded many times and yet, through times of cultural and religious upheaval and change, a great many of it's ancient sacred sites remain revered or intact (with a fear of fairy wrath being invoked if the place is violated in any way). When invading peoples swept into Ireland, bringing their own deities with them, these were able to be accomodated by the Irish. The endemic species of highly evolved nature beings (the devas and divinities) didn't go away, but just had to jostle for position amongst a bulging pantheon of indigenous and imported deities. A great deal of recycling went on in the characters of archetypal hero deities. Over the aeons many legends have been lost, fragmented and no doubt deliberately altered to suit prevailing tastes or politics.
The early Irish church and medieval writers had an interesting time recasting the raw nature of Ireland's deities and re-inventing them as saints and semi-divine heroes, integrating with folk beliefs. It would have been a tricky job dealing with the all-powerful Irish sun goddesses. The new patriarchal religion wasn't going to put up with them! Solar associations with women were anathema to the church, who suppressed all that was suggestive of positive feminine force, as well as any indigenous practises that were vital and life-evoking in animistic cultures they impose themselves upon.
But the power of the sun goddesses still filtered through. St Brigit was said, as a baby, to glow, no doubt as a result of her lineage of ancient solar goddesses. St Brigid Crosses, made for the first day of spring/Imbolc/February 1st, appear to depict the solar wheel, the quartered circle of the sun's year with its four seasons / directions. The sunny natured imagery of the great sun god Lugh, was also borrowed by the church to become the bright light of Jesus and St Patrick.
But more lately New Age writers have fallen into the trap set by christianity and they'll typically typecast deities as being of the light for men, and of darkness for women, ignoring the fact that a great majority of solar deities globally are female. By only claiming the moon, womankind remains a mere reflection of ultimate power the sun - when truly she can be an all-powerful and radiant being if she wants to be!
Dark god
There was one early Irish god who just couldn't be church-washed
easily and He enjoyed the highest of status in Ireland and other
Celtic countries, before the church began it's cultural genocide.
This was Crom Dubh, the 'dark, stooped one' who lived in the
underworld throughout winter, emerging on 1st August to claim
the 'first fruits', in the form of Eithne the corn maiden, and
bringing her on his back (hence his stoop) down to the underworld.
(It's interesting that the south-west American god of agriculture
Kokopelli - is also depicted with a stoop, due to his carrying
embryonic babies on his back.)
This ritual 'sacrifice' ensured continuing bounty from the Earth in which the seeds would germinate. The traditions vary from place to place. Crom is sometimes depicted as the last sheaf of corn cut at the harvest. An Ulster tradition was the taking of the last sheaf of corn and hanging it up in the home to represent the god. It would hang over the harvest feast table and was assigned oracular powers in the distant past, Cary Meehan informs us.
In 19th century sources Crom Dubh was known as the 'god of harvest' and He was believed to emerge from the underworld - the body of the great Earth mother goddess Grainne-Aine - with the first great sheaf of wheat, as a sacred gift to our world, writes Michael Dames. Crom's popularity lasted long on the western seaboard, from Donegal Bay down to the Dingle Peninsula, and Crom was usually paired up with Aine as the premier pair of Earthy harvest deities.
Eithne means kernel or grain and this maiden daughter of Aine and Crom has had her name Anglicisized in Ulster as Annie. She is depicted in 'maiden' corn dollies and in the astrological sign for Virgo, Dames points out. Corn 'dollies' were woven from barley, corn and oats and their diverse shapes evoke the glyphs of an ancient sun/fertility religion. (The word corn originally meant all types of cereal grains and ethanol would be a word descending from the name of the corn maiden.)
Pic: Corn Dollies in Switzerland
Crom's festival day was known as Domhnach Cromm Dubh and Black Stoop Sunday. Later on it was sometimes known as Garland or Bilberry Sunday (named for the festival's association with berry picking), in an attempt to erase the memory of old Crom. The event was celebrated either on the last day or last Sunday of July, or on the first day or first Sunday of August.
Over in Scotland, Wikipedia informs us that
there is (or was) a curious Scottish saying: 'Di-Dòmhnaich
crum-dubh, plaoisgidh mi an t-ùbh' meaning -
"Crooked Black Sunday, I'll shell the egg."
The egg association must hark back to the seeds that Crom Dubh carries and lovingly places in the Earth each year at the beginning of autumn, when farmers also sow the next year's crop. Also known as Crom Cruaich, Crom probably originated as a deity who came with the earliest peoples from Iberia, heralding advances in agriculture and associated with bulls.
Mairie MacNeill, who reviewed a mass of folklore of Irish harvest festivals, has concluded that Crom is 'a version of Donn' (a very early god), and that 'he can be regarded as identical with the pre-Celtic food-providing gods Cormac, the Dagda, Elcmar, Midir and Balor'. Crom was a god borne from the beginnings of Neolithic agriculture, who later contended with the advent of new technologies, the coming of the Bronze, then the Iron Ages. He wielded the rannach, the staff of life, but was also associated with death. He even managed to survive the onslaught of christianity but only just! The darkness of the underworld god Crom could only be interpreted by the church as the Devil, well eventually it did. At first Crom's redeeming features were actually praised by St Patrick!
Lugh, the god of sun/light, later took over Crom's role to some extent, after arriving around 500 BCE from continental Europe. The Tuatha de Danaan people were said to have brought Lugh and his spear of victory to Ireland, where he became known as the master of arts. The legends then have Lugh attempting to wrest the corn maiden Eithne from Crom's back for Lugh became Crom's adversary, and together they personified the battle of the light over dark, the two halves of the year. The great harvest feast of Lughnasa takes it's name from him.
Lugh is called Lug in Gaul and his principal temple - the Lugudunum - was at Lyons in modern France. The Tuatha de Danaan also brought with them the great god Dagda (who had a cauldron from which no-one would go away unsatisfied), and he became more important than Lugh over time. These gods, who seem to have begun life as semi-divine ancestor heroes, must have personified the yin and yang of divine masculinity. While Lugh, with his flashy sword of light, and other gods were more recently venerated, it seems that the memory of dark old Crom has been the more deeply etched within the Irish psyche.
Crom's stone assembly
Crom was depicted with his 'sub-gods twelve' in standing stones
covered with gold, silver and brass. Stones which represented
the 13 'gods' were 'probably' located on the Hill of Darraugh
(the 'Rath of the Oak Grove'), beside Ballymagauran Lake in County
Leitrim, suggests author James Hayward in 1939.
The assembly of Crom Cruaich the central deity surrounded by (or adjacent to) a circle of his 12 sub-ordinates in stone - was echoed by the famous Assemblies of Tara, held at Ireland's royal centre for 142 high kings at the Hill of Tara, with the high king surrounded by a circle of vassals. (The famous megalith there, the Lia Fail, was said to cry out when approached by the legitimate king to be. Locally known as 'Fergus's phallus', the stone reminds us of the king's requirement to make a sacred marriage with the Earth goddess, before kingship could be approved by the land itself.)
And in Cornwall stone circles were used for coronations up until the fourteenth century, with the king in the centre and his noblemen arranged around him at each of their representative stones, as noted by an 18th century historian, Nigel Pennick relates.
Connection with the Hill of Tara
The sacred centre at the Hill of Tara has a connection with north-east
Leitrim and north-west Cavan, the area where Crom's circle stood
and once a stronghold of his worship. This was in the form of
a royal road that connected the two places together (one of five
royal roads that lead to/from Tara), so that kings could worship
the supreme god. The place of the god Crom was linked to the
hill of the sovereignty goddess Maebh, and thus Tara is a huge
landscape temple of linked sites where people would honour the
bounty and cyclic renewal of nature and the dual male/female
divinity of the land.
The general population, as well as the lords, chiefs and high kings of Tara, all worshipped this god and travelled along the ceremonial road from Tara direct to the site to pay homage to Crom. Showing how important it was, St Patrick followed this road on his mission to destroy Crom's worship and there are several St Patrick's Wells along the way. The fact that these were consecrated to Patrick signifies an intense effort to suppress the pagan practices encountered by the church there. Funnily enough, the annual pilgrimages to these wells are never held on St Patrick's day, but around the time of Lughnasa on (or around) 1st August.
Legend has it that after Patrick confronted the god he noted Crom's good works and took possession of his soul, while putting to flight his demons and making him his servant! He even declared that "Crom's charities and good works were more than a balance for his sins." It says a lot for the attitudes of the Celtic church of the day.
Cary Meehan places the location of the 'banishment' of Crom by St Patrick at Killycluggin, near Ballyconnell in far west County Cavan. The Killycluggin Stone is said to represent Crom. It is a rounded pillar stone once standing about 5 feet tall, elaborately decorated with spirals in the La Tene style (much like the more famous Turoe Stone in Galway) and with it's top left hand side missing. A stone marker shows it's original location and Meehan reports 11 stones in the adjacent stone circle.
These days the original Killycluggin stone is safely housed in the County museum at Ballyjamesduff. The top was damaged by St Patrick, the legend goes, but the stone itself "still exudes a very powerful earthy presence from its corner in the museum" writes Meehan in 2002. The Cavan museum booklet dates it at circa 200 BC, saying that it has a "religious significance associated in some way with fertility".
The museum also says that a 1974 archeological study found a burial cist beneath the great stone and dating from the early Bronze Age which made it "contemporary with a stone circle which stood nearby", alluding to the long period of use of the site and the relatively early age of the Killycluggin Stone. Perhaps the Iron Age invaders/immigrants smashed the ancient statues of Crom to replace Him with stones carved in the Celtic style, representing their god Lugh. An act of recycling later to be emulated by St Patrick, perhaps?
The bull god's arena
Crom's animal was the bull and his greatest surviving monument
appears to be an enclosure for sacred bulls in County Limerick.
This is Ireland's largest henge - the embanked arena of Rannach
Crom Dubh, otherwise known as the Lios and (on the local signage)
as the Grange Stone Circle. Erected around 2500 BC, it is ringed
by 113 megalithic stones and is located near the western shore
of Lough Gur, once a significant cultural centre and a landscape
'owned' by the sun/landscape goddess Aine (pronounced Onya).
The location is now farmland (and accessible to the public),
from where the 'grange' in its name originates.
Pic: The Grange Stone Circle
Across this sacred site complex Crom carried corn maiden Eithne, from Aine's birthing chair (a limestone slab beside Lough Gur, known as the Housekeeper's Chair). There is an alignment between these two (and other) sites on the Lughnasa/August 1st sunrise (as well as the Samain/November 1st sunset), on an axis of 59 degrees, when sunlight streams down the entrance path into the great circle. The stone-lined passageway on this alignment points towards a pair of stone 'horns', the tallest stones in the ring (although one of the top of the 'horns' has been knocked off). Beneath this stone pair were found layers of organic debris that suggest the annual slaughter and feasting upon of bulls.
It was along this path each year that Crom Dubh entered carrying the corn child, with his spear of life and the seeds of next years crop, which he symbolically buried in a sacred furrow, marked out in stone beneath the yellow clay surface of the arena. Crom's harvest feast day was locally called Black Stoop Sunday, for Crom is said to be bent from carrying the weighty sheafs of grain.
The arena may well have once hosted bullfighting, ritual battling between groups of men with ash staves, and contests of strength. Beneath the floor layer of yellow clay the symbols of the Neolithic god/goddess pair were discovered (but not initially recognised). Carefully placed limestone rocks delineate a buried staff 36.4 metres long (the staff was also the great god Dagda's symbol of office and in Old Irish the word lorg is used for both staff, wand of office and penis.) There is also a crescent new moon of the maiden goddess on the same scale.
Sitting beside the great Crom Dubh Stone in the Grange Circle, a pile of coins placed on a stack of concrete pieces (pictured, in August 2007) attests to the modern veneration that Crom still enjoys there.
Pic: The Crom Dubh stone still enjoys currency. Peter Cowman pays his dues.
Crom mountains
Like other masculine deities elsewhere, Crom was associated with
mountain tops and his worship survived longest in mountainous
parts. In 1939 Hayward noted Crom traditions surviving in the
mountains between Lough Allen, in County Leitrim, and Lough Erne,
County Fermanagh. (The Tuatha de Danaan were said to have landed
from a mysterious cloud on the Iron Mountain of Leitrim, which
is in the region noted by Hayward.)
The original pilgrimage to the summit of Croagh Patrick in County Roscommon was a ritual visit to the sacred enclosure of the divine harvest duo Crom Dubh and Aine, and this probably involved a sun-wise perambulation around the summit (as modern christian pilgrims do nowadays). Excavations have uncovered a large asymmetrical enclosure at the top of the reek as well as an ancient oratory, a pilgrim's shelter.
In County Cavan the original Killycluggin Crom stone and circle of 11 other stones were not far away (1.5 miles) from a hill called Crom Cruach. Elsewhere in the county are found at least four other hills associated with Lughnasa hilltop celebrations.
On the Dingle Peninsula Crom was said to have resided at Ballyduff (Baile Dubh in Gaelic). Feasting, games and courtship once followed the annual harvest pilgrimage up to the summit of nearby Mt Brandon, the second highest peak in the country and originally called the mountain of The Dagda (the father god of the Tuatha de Danann). The festival rites, held on Crom Dubh's Sunday, the last Sunday in July, included a solemn cutting of the first of the grain, then carrying it to the summit and burying it there, as an offering to the deity. This would have been followed with a meal of the harvest food (the new potatoes, grains or berries), at the festival held down in the village of Cloghane on Brandon Bay (two miles from Ballyduff).
It's probable that the sacrifice of a sacred bull may have also taken place, followed by a feast of it's flesh and perhaps ritual dance play with a bull hide, not to mention the usual love making and faction fighting that characterised harvest festivals across the country, and angered the life-denying church.
A stone head in the ruined church at Cloghane was said locally to depict Crom. This disappeared in 1993 but was replaced in 1999 by a replica which is now kept in a safer location. The legends in these parts have it that local hero St Brendan was the one to have "converted" Crom to Christianity. (This is reminiscent of the European tradition, where Santa Klaus is said to employ the devil as a helper at Christmas time!)
More recycling of Crom and Aine
In the mid 19th century County Louth the annual harvest festival
was known as the Sunday of Aine and Crom Dubh. At harvest time
this divine duo were in their elder aspect and, as co-rulers
of vegetation, one imagines that the pair may have been required
to symbolically die each year to ensure the following year's
harvest; while Eithne, their child, represents the new seeds
for the cyclic renewal of life.
The early Celtic church had the good sense to be inclusive of Crom and his divine ilk. In later Irish chronicles we find less tolerance. Around the time of the Norman invasion in the 12th century new religious orders swept away the vernacular Celtic church. Yet the images of the old gods and goddesses never really disappeared and even flowered anew during the medieval era there.
Building facades started to depict the masked, vegetative faces of the Green Man sprouting over them in organic abandon. Churches and castles began to sport carvings of the naked, and often fearsome Sheela-na-Gigs, who probably represent the protective, all-knowing crone goddesses of earlier eras (with a hint of rebellion against the prudish new order). This iconic couple of figures, suggestive of ancient landscape and vegetation fertility divinities, appear to provide expression for an exuberant re-manifestation of some of Ireland's most ancient divinities.
Pic: The Green Man in Australia, second most Irish country in the world.
References:
Dames, Michael, 'Mythic Ireland', Thames and
Hudson, UK, 1992.
Hayward, Richard, 'Where the River Shannon Flows', Morrison &
Gibb Ltd, UK, 1940.
Pennick, Nigel, 'Celtic Sacred Landscapes', Thames and Hudson,
UK, 1996.
Harbison, Peter, 'Pilgrimage in Ireland the monuments and
the people', Barrie and Jenkins, UK, 1991.
Meehan, Cary, 'Sacred Ireland', Gothic Image, UK, 2002.
Macneill, Mairie, 'The Festival of Lughnasa', Oxford, UK, 1962
McMahon, Joanne and Roberts, Jack, 'The Sheela-Na-Gigs of Ireland
and Britain The Divine Hag of the Christian Celts - An
Illustrated Guide' Mercier Press, Dublin, 2001.
Frazer, Sir James George, 'The Illustrated Golden Bough' edited
by Mary Douglas, Macmillan, London, 1978 (original 1890).
Ancient buildings such as the Great Pyramids, the Parthenon, Newgrange and, in more recent times, the Gothic cathedrals, harbour secrets which were incorporated into their designs by their architects. This allowed for the abstract manifestation of these secrets within the buildings themselves. These can be described as the 'feelings' evoked by the architecture. The ancient secrets of design are founded on this ability of architecture to unify physical and emotional experience. This is assisted by the fact that buildings have an inside and an outside which is a reflection of the 'inner' and 'outer' worlds we exist in. Where architecture provided a means of harmonising these physical and spiritual aspects of life, buildings functioned as identifying mechanisms allowing people to orient themselves in a multi-dimensional physical/emotional world. Because the unification of physical and emotional experience is the cornerstones of a sustainable life, an architecture appropriate to this must exist in order to live sustainably. This suggests that somehow the ancient secrets of architecture must be revived.
The elimination of what might be referred to as the 'metaphysical' aspects of building design dates from The Enlightenment which promoted reason as the only verifiable reality worth pursuing. This defined architecture as something physical, to be seen from the outside, not entered into and experienced. Status, grandeur and outward appearance become of paramount importance, effectively purging architecture of its secrets and ushering in the era of 'soulessness' in building design which still prevails. The long term effect of this has been to obscure the potential of architecture to orient people within the multi-dimensional physical/emotional world in which they exist and to compound the feeling of disconnectedness from life which many people feel.
It is generally assumed that professional architects are experts when it comes to house design. This infers that there are 'schools of house design' where architects - the only people formally trained to design buildings - receive initiation into the art. This is simply untrue. House design has always belonged to a separate tradition of architectural practice which is referred to as 'the vernacular'.
Vernacular architecture design traditions encompass many of the dynamics that can be detected in the formal architectural tradition but with the veil of secrecy absent. This occurred because vernacular architecture had no formal body of practitioners but only imitators - those who kept traditional designs alive by continuing their development over long periods of time. The secrets thus perpetuated were open secrets and freely available to all. The application of this common knowledge had a similar effect on the architecture of the home as the application of formal architectural secrets did on ancient buildings - they forged a connection between the outer physical world and the inner emotional world. As such the home acted as an identifying marker, a reference point that allowed for the orientation of the individual within the world. It is the expression of this identity that forms the basis of culture. Where this orienting mechanism is absent the meaning of culture and self become confused and strong attachments to a uni-dimensional physical world becomes inevitable.
In the Irish context, the traditional cottage is the architectural reference point from which we derive a sense of who we are. However, as has been the case with modern architecture, the modern home, mounted on a pedestal of reason and with no emotional dimension whatsoever, can be an empty and soulless place devoid of any of the 'feeling' of the traditional and offering no clear signposting as to who the occupant actually is. Sustainable living demands an emotional bonding with life along with a clear sense of who we are and where we are going. The inability of modern architecture, and, particularly the architecture of the home, to provide such context demands a radical change in how buildings are designed and constructed. In the case of formal architecture this will involve an examination of how architecture is taught and practiced as well making reference to the ancient secrets of the profession. In the case of the architecture of the home it has to be realised that where no formal schools of house design exist and where professional architects do not consider the home to be part of their tradition, no centralising influence exists through which one can initiate change. This is alarming as the buildings we live in will largely determine how well we can manage to survive in a post Oil Peak 'sustainable' world.
Our genetic make-up is lavishly endowed with survival instinct out of which our ability to create shelter emerges. This 'sheltermaking gene' endows everybody with innate knowledge regarding the creation of shelter, which, along with food production, forms the foundation of our survival mechanism and provides a stimulus for the development of culture and identity. In part it is our distancing ourselves from direct engagement with sheltermaking and food production that has led to the disconnection we feel from life itself and from a sense of who we are. Up until the Industrial Revolution it was the norm for people to create their own homes, utilising common knowledge for guidance. The move away from building one's own home effectively broke this thread of continuity and homes became 'utilitarian' rather than repositories of cultural identity within which people lived and engaged with life.
It is critical to understand how the relinquishment of what I call 'personal sheltermaking' - designing and building one's own home - has affected people. Once the move away from the agrarian life was underway a whole raft of traditions were relinquished - symbolised by the quenching of the fire and the abandonment of the hearth. In other words the living traditions of survival activity were extinguished in favour of the promise of modernity. This fossil-fuelled leap forward used the machine to replace what heretofore people had provided for themselves either by their own energies or assisted by natural or animal power. The dissolution of cultural identity which such modernity engendered has left people adrift, disconnected, scrambling to understand themselves and the world around them.
The design ethos of the industrial-era home was forged out of obeisance to the new gods of power and money. This created houses that were mere boxes in which to partake of food, rest and procreation. These 'homes' incorporated none of the cultural idioms of the vernacular, effectively severing ties to emotional reality and offering no identifying markers to the individual . It is certain that the abandonment of the traditional rural life was wholeheartedly embraced by many at the time and indeed the promises of the Machine Age still remains attractive even in the face of its evident destructiveness. However, it is the élan of the deeper emotional connections that make our hearts soar and it is these deep connections that have been severed through the abandonment of traditional lifestyles. The surrender of control over the sheltermaking process has been a huge contributor to this sense of disconnection and loss. This is because architecture, by virtue of the fact that it brings together multiple dimensions to form itself, creates a natural doorway to our inner reality.
Apart from the disturbance to the continuity of the vernacular house design tradition caused by the Industrial Revolution another pernicious influence imposed itself on the 'housing market' - debt. Acquiring a home suddenly involved engagement with lending institutions and, the repayment from the proceeds of work, the resulting borrowings. With this shift in the nature of survival activity not only was the cultural wealth of the traditional lifestyle lost but also people found themselves locked into a cycle of work and credit in order to 'pay their way' in this new world. As a consequence, culture and identity, which spontaneously emerge from the traditional food/shelter cycles of activity, were replaced by idealisations exclusively available through the new matrix of survival activity - the Market Economy. Modern culture, including our homes, which emerged from this, forms the stage-set against which we represent our sense of who we are - our identity. Where this backdrop is forever changing we must continually strive to be someone else. This is a confusing state of affairs. It is also expensive, energy-hungry and generates voluminous amounts of waste as costume after costume is discarded in a search for true identity.
Understanding the puzzle of modern life is an integral part of repossessing the house design process - identifying who we are, where we are going and how we plan to get there. Formerly one simply donned the regalia of tradition and created a recognisable, familiar and workable habitation that facilitated the traditional survival activity. In the here and now, given the destructiveness of the Machine Age and the sense of loss which we collectively feel, picking up the threads of the vernacular sheltermaking tradition is a challenging but necessary exercise. It is against this backdrop that the drama of sustainable life will be played out. What is critical to appreciate is that no unifying body exists to guide this new sheltermaking activity and it will be up to people themselves to effect the necessary change.
Nowhere did the lack of authority in the house design sphere become more evident than in 1963 with the introduction of the first Planning Act. Before that time one simply built what one wanted more or less where one wanted. After 1963 Planning Permission was required for even a small house in the countryside. This created a demand for design drawings which had to be submitted with any Planning Application. Whereas in the old tradition one simply reverted to what was available locally in terms of design, imitating it by eye, the requirement for drawings in the new tradition spawned a market for design pattern books of which Bungalow Bliss is the most famous. These pattern book designs were based on the tradition of rural self-build but used new forms, materials and scale, paying no heed to physical, emotional or cultural connectivity.
Pattern books such as Bungalow Bliss sought to replace vernacular housebuilding traditions with modern designs that would usher people into the new age. However, as was painfully discovered, the new bungalow merely provided a cold empty container that had to be filled with consumer durables and meaning. The cultural dynamic of the traditional home was extinguished in a blaze of light. Prosperity had arrived and all were free to partake in its wonders. This, fanned by encouragement from the state and funded by easy credit, could not but consume all that had been left behind. While this was understandable, even necessary, no one realised that the conflagration of the past consumed a sense of who we were before we had quite figured out who we had become.
Bungalow Bliss belongs to the Victorian tradition of pattern book house designs where people are portrayed as an addendum to the perfection offered by the machine age. This approach casts the house as a stage upon which one acts out one's own version of perfection attended by the accoutrements and fashions of the day. The drudgery of the agrarian life is obliterated by machine. The lure of this way of life lies in the apparent comfort it offers from hardship. While this may be appealing in terms of the physical effort required to live off the land, where a discontinuity occurs in terms of a sense of who we are the comfort zone of the warm interior offers no succour whatsoever. The market deals with this dilemma by offering endless identities for sale. Where such avenues prove to be emotionally unsatisfying the lure of a sustainable life becomes compelling.
The very purpose for which Bungalow Bliss was intended - the provision of design drawings to satisfy the requirements of the 1963 Planning Act - has now come to haunt the Planning system. Correcting the horror of this now informs Planning policy throughout Ireland. The bulk of County Council design recommendations currently in place evoke a pre-63 romanticism in terms of the outward appearance of houses, which is really the only 'side' of the house that the Planners seem to care about. The aim of these design recommendations is to evoke a cosy relationship between house and landscape based on the updated forms of the cottage vernacular. This effort to create a new vernacular, where it concerns itself only with the outside of a building, highlights the lack of direction and leadership which exists in the house design sphere and grants to Planning Authorities wide ranging influence on this sector. Where such influence is informed by a reaction to the Bungalow Bliss legacy a veritable straightjacket has been created out of plastered walls and blue-black roofs. Where Planners are not professionally trained house designers and where such guidelines are framed in a reaction to past errors, they inevitably clash with the needs of sustainable house design where it wishes to utilise alternative materials, to gather solar energy, to be affordable and well located and to cater for the myriad other considerations of a sustainable life. Thankfully laws can be changed but for such changes to be effective and meaningful in the context of the sustainable future we are all being urged to embrace, a new code of house design will have to be formulated that allows for the proper integration of the physical and emotional dynamics that constitute life itself. Inevitably such a task will lead to confrontation with the current norms regarding houses, their financing and the way we live. Such a path will be painful and challenging but the power of architecture to support truly sustainable living will make the effort more than worthwhile. In the meantime how the current sorry situation regarding house design - and architecture in general - has arisen needs to be fully understand. This will prove to be an unrivalled stimulant in enticing one to live more sustainably.
Because a sustainable life is an emotional as well as a physical one. it is vital that buildings designed for sustainable living take this into account from the outset. While such an approach might appear to be overwhelming, this is merely a consequence of including an 'inner' dimension in the design. This tracks right to the heart of our deepest fears concerning our survival. The potential onslaught from such encounters are indeed challenging, however, the strength derived from facing such fears will comfortably carry one through these ordeals. This is due to the response of one's sheltermaking 'gene' which, if it's call is honoured, will prove to be a steadfast ally. It is from this vantage that one 'lives one's architecture', in the process reclaiming identity and contributing vitally to a culture of sustainability. It must be understood that the power to initiate such change lies within us - it can never belong to governments nor their agencies despite their claims to be arbiters of 'sustainability'.
Because The House is central to realising one's ambitions to live sustainably, the creation of an appropriate design is vital to the success of this. This will emerge from one's own 'identity' the life one has to live. It is the process of merging such 'inner' qualities with those of the 'outer' world which forms the 'living' architecture. This contributes to and compliments a 'sustainable' culture founded on the bedrock of a deep commitment to life itself.
See Peter's website at www.livingarchitecturecentre.com
Stones of Power
Part 1: Logan stones
way as menhirs, dolmens and other megalithic structures. Their speciality is
the fact that they aren't in contact with the subsoil by a surface, but only
by a point. Some of them are balanced in a way that wind swings them. In
other cases, rocks are placed onto a few smaller stones. A similar placing
could also be found with dolmens, where a top desk is placed on top points
of stones. The placing onto small surfaces isn't coincidental but has its
foundation. In my previous articles on www.miroslavprovod.com
<outbind://2/www.miroslavprovod.com> <http://www.miroslavprovod.com/ ,
where I'm writing about properties of cosmic energy, I'm stating the
conditions under which the flow of energy occurs. Matter could gain energy,
it could be in a balanced state or it could be losing energy. The
construction of Logan stones wasn't coincidental, the energetic losses were
higher than the gains in their locations and therefore it was necessary to
minimize losses in a way that the contact surface of the rock with the
subsoil was minimized. The same technology was used by the constructors of
mounds and other clay ramparts, who separated the matter of the rampart from
the subsoil by organic matter. In the case of Logan stones the matter of the
rock is separated from the subsoil mainly by an air gap.
of Logan stones that are swung by the wind. Balancing of such a heavy rock
was much labored and this must have had a significant reason. I was looking
for the answer by doing experiments. I connected a sphere made from red
granite that weighed 6 kilograms to a tree branch by a two meters long
string and swung it for fifteen minutes. I was surprised when I then
identified the energetic gain of the granite sphere - I measured its aura
having two meters in radius. I repeated the same experiment a number of
times in other places always with the same result. This proves that Logan
stones gain further energy by the swinging motion. This and previous
experiments show that the motion of matter could also be a source of cosmic
energy in other cases. It will be interesting to invigorate this phenomenon
in other cases.
level of prehistoric civilizations has come. Hundreds of thousands of
accumulators of cosmic energy (menhirs, dolmens, Logan stones, clay ramparts
and other megalithic constructions) located around the world hint that they
couldn't have been built by primitive peoples. On the contrary, we aren't
able to understand the purpose of megalithic constructions, which is
highlighting the forwardness of early cultures. If we think about it in a
way that the direction of their technical development could have been
different from ours it will induce an increased interest in further research
in this field.
Part 2: New theory of Balanced Rocks
Balanced rocks are rocks of great mass which, in the same way as menhirs, are located in places of great concentrations of cosmic energy. They differ from menhirs by their more rounded shape and by their location on a small area. They may be swung by the wind due to their precise balancing. In my last article I described an experiment, which shows that matter gains energy from being swung.
Further, I will be dealing with important information about balanced
rocks, which could be deducted from information found at GOOGLE
after typing in "balanced rocks": "Balanced
rocks are located in great amount on five continents. "
This fact eliminates any discussion about whether ancient civilisations
were able to communicate over great distances or not. We don't
know the answer to the question of how they were exchanging information
in such a way. However, we have enough organisational experience
to say that without communication and coordination it wouldn't
be possible to built thousands of balanced rocks around the globe.
The transport of rocks weighing more than hundreds of tons over
a rough terrain, many times on top of mountains, and the difficult
balancing enabling their swinging motion would be an unsolvable
task for our technically advanced civilisation. If the ancient
cultures solved this task, we can't doubt that they used some
- for us- unknown technological progresses.
The usual reason for megalithic structures that is given - that they were built for ritual, calendar, agricultural and astronomical reasons - wouldn't hold out for balanced rocks. We can approach the reason for balanced rocks only if we lay away the textbook thought about people with a stone axe and think in a way that we are dealing with a technically developed civilisation, which was ahead of our civilisation in some unknown direction. I will enlarge on these thoughts about the megaliths in this direction in connection with the findings of the empirical research about new properties of matter. I will try to explain how people exchanged information over great distances by the use of balanced rocks.
A menhir is a rock placed in a region of an energy source from which it spontaneously gains energy. At the times of building of menhirs there were only natural energy sources of cosmic energy on the Earth underground springs, streams, rivers, large streams, sea currents, thunderclouds and others. The energetic value of these sources wasn't stable; it was affected by the change of flow of water streams and the changes of other sources. Menhirs were affected by this in a way that their energetic parts were in a constant movement by which the zones and inter zones changed their separation. At times of drought it's not possible to identify them. For the transport of energy it's necessary that the zones of the individual sources cross each other. This however can't be accomplished by menhirs due to the instability of their zones. It wasn't possible to use menhirs for the transport of energy due to the ability of their energetic parts.
The way in which people in the ancient times solved this problem deserves admiration. By the swinging motion they built a source into the rock, which compensated for the changes and disruptions to the external sources it functioned as a stabilisation element. The energetic parts of balanced rocks became stationary and could be used for an uninterrupted transport of energy. If you visit <http://www.miroslavprovod.com/>
http://www.miroslavprovod.com , Chapters / 2003, NO, 6, there is a diagram of energetic parts of two trees which intersect. In the text attached I'm describing how the transport of energy is realized. Therefore, balanced rocks could have functioned as part of the transport energy process in a similar way as retranslation stations of our time. Balanced rocks could have transported energy in two ways. They could have had their own transport network or they could have been just an interconnection of zones of sea currents, great streams and other great sources in their common network, as it looks like at Nazca.
All the megalithic structures on Earth have the same purpose. Cosmic energy is accumulated in their matter, which people than used for curative and other reasons. The structures had to undergo one condition they had to be situated into an energetic part of cosmic energy. The regional difference of the shapes of megalithic structures was usually accommodated to the local material sources and other conditions. In America, mounds were mostly built, which were from mud and no good workmanship was needed. More advanced civilizations built pyramids, ziggurats or other more difficult structures. Also, great structures with energetic regulation were built, such as Teotihuacán, San Lorenzo, Nazca Plain, Laos stone jars...
Another category of megalithic structures are Easter Islands, Nan Madol, Zimbabwe and others. These probably ensured the connection and maybe even intensification of zones over great distances. In connection with previous results, we could await interesting results from further research.
January 2008
© Miroslav Provod
Back to the top
Wisdom
of Water
'real book' by Alanna Moore, after
reviewing some her DVDs and
accompanying booklets over the
last year or so, as I quite liked her
writing (and film editing) style. I
was not disappointed. The format
of The Wisdom of Water is very
similar, but on a larger scale, with
interesting stories, myths, facts or
information inserted judiciously in
their own box space.
Divided into Four Parts, each is
subdivided under section headings
which guide you through 250 pages
of text overflowing with
mythology, history, environmental
issues, geo-biology, geomancy, and
dowsing. A good part of what is in
the book centres on Australiana,
though there is plenty of global
content too, from rain making in
India to the healing well of Celtic
saints.
The essence of the book is that
Alanna Moore treats the water
aspect of Earth holistically. She makes
connections and networks between the
element of water and the life forms of the
planet, including us, of course. By the end
of the book I was totally connected.
I did warn you, didn't I? This book is full
to brimming with 'stuff'. It had me
riveted for two days.
Part One is Waters of the Earth. This
includes for instance, the rise and fall of
civilisations in relation to water, the
Australian landscape, ground water and
divining. Here you can read about
vanishing waters and the Holy Grail,
plantations and ground water, the
Cauldron of Rebirth; ancient Aboriginal
gardens, hot springs and dowsing for
underground rivers.
Part Two is Waters of Power and Mystery.
Here we look at water's special qualities
including its relation to thunder, lightning,
ionisation, its memory and emotion. Then
we move on to Mysteries, the unexplained
but events that have a continuing profile,
such as Lights, UFOs and again, dowsing.
Now we head back into history as Alanna
talks about tapping what she calls 'water's
wisdom', the other side of the
conversation between humankind and the
element: wells, oracles, and predictions of
earthquakes and rain, and the culture of
water worship. Back again to ancient
history, this section is jam-packed with
information on amphibious Gods and
Goddesses around the Globe, healing
waters, angels, lustration (ritual
emersion), and concludes with comments
on the Water Goddess as she is perceived
today. Here Alanna makes a direct
connection with Mother Mary, which was
a bit of a surprise for me, bypassing the
biblical Mary and pointing out that the
great mother has direct descent from the
Spirit of Water. Certainly part of the
Marion cult that I had missed.
Alanna has done some truly interesting
research. The book is full of little
surprises like this.
Onward to Part Three, Waters of the Sky,
which turns our attention to Australian
droughts, weather prediction, rain making,
and how to harvest water from the sky
dew ponds and fog fences. Fascinating.
The actual mechanics of how water passes
through the daily life of the planet are
explained simply and concisely, and
there was a lot of information here
that was new to me.
Part Four, Restoring the Waters,
covers all the 'alternative' and
exploratory methods of restoring
water in the Australian landscape,
methods which actually work but are
still regarded with suspicion by
mainstream advisors. Part Four
culminates in an inspirational head
up on how we can restore not only
the degradation of our global water
environment, but our own emotional
and perhaps spiritual connection with
the element of water. Essentially, as
she discusses water's reaction to
sound vibrations, Alanna introduces
the reader to the concept that it's ok
to talk to water.
At the end of this book, I felt as
though I'd ridden a roller coaster. I
learned a lot, agreed with lots, and
went back to re-read much. The
Australian reader is totally catered
for and the whole book is well
peppered with colourful international
information, such as Balinese temple
rituals or the weather forecasting of
bees! You truly don't know what's
going to be on the next page.
For those who like to know where
facts and ideas come from, Alanna
gives book references at the end of
each section, though the text is not
footnoted. If it were so, you probably
wouldn't be able to read the text for
numerical interjections! This book
covers so much diverse subject
matter related to water, that you are
regularly invited to look up the
primary sources of you chosen
interest. I find this method very
efficient for the general reader.
What I may have previously
described as "Alanna's open door
method".
Very invigorating.
Highly recommended".
Reviewed by: Jilli Roberts
Sept 2007
Sorry, but I haven't yet finished the book, so will give a potted summary of the first few chapters. The book is divided into 4 sections: Waters of the Earth (where water is found in Australia, and what we have done to it. An introduction to dowsing); Waters of power and mystery (waters' special qualities healing, wisdom, memory etc); Waters of the sky (drought in Australia, rain making and harvesting); and Restoring the waters (improving water conservation from the national to local levels, improving its quality, caring for water).
The first few chapters are more to my way
of thinking the practicalities of where water is, what
humans have done to it throughout the world, groundwater, hot
springs, 'new water' and dowsing/divining for water. Somehow,
I don't have a problem with dowsing for water; it's the other
energies I have more problems with! I think that's because I've
seen a very conservative local (Cygnet) man dowsing (and he's
well known for his skills)... but
then again, most locals are Catholic, which means they have an
Irish background, which means they believe in fairies and goblins...
..It's the sort of book that gives you the
information you need when talking with those who think that 'business
as usual' will keep human civilisation going endlessly. I also
like the constant referral to the Australian Aboriginal use and
customs with regards to water too long neglected in those
who see Australia as another England just add water!