the free web magazine of dowsing & geomancy, Earth mysteries & energies, building biology,
Welcome to the autumn issue of Geomantica for March 2010.
It's great to be able to offer a diverse range of upcoming courses, with guest teachers for natural building (Earth plastering), the Vastu Shastra weekend and Build Your Own Wind Turbine later in the year. Peter' Cowman's courses in Living Architecture are growing in popularity and our promotion of permaculture has been welcomed. We have been very busy bunnies! And with a move over to Dunolly later in the year in the pipeline, we hope to continue to offer quality educational experiences there for sustaining our beautiful planet.
This May we celebrate ten years of the Geomantica website and free on-line Geomantica magazines. Wow! 10 years since I got this Imac - and it's still going strong! Tom Graves kindly set up the website and it has served the task well all this time! Thanks Tom!
In this Geomantica no 45 there's lots of good information, much inspiration and lots to get on with!
That said, I'd better go and mix some clay and straw to fill our new Econospace cabin walls with...
Thanks muchly to all contributors,
Until next time (October) -
Peace and bright blessings
from the editor - Alanna Moore
Windfarm Syndrome in rural Victoria
It's been an almost silent epidemic surfacing wherever that giant
windfarms have been installed. Mainstream media has largely ignored
the issue, but Geomantica reported on aspects of this problem
some years ago (June 2005, in Geomantica 28, from 'Wind Farms
- a Health Time Bomb', reported by The Land, a NSW rural newspaper).
The push for renewable energy has not shown much concern for
the human health impacts of these massive installations. There
has been a sickly silence, one that would not be long to last.
Then, on Stateline (ABC TV Friday February 26th) finally, the
cat was out of the bag!
'Waubra Disease' is what they called it around that Victorian town, where the state's largest wind farm lies. Since beginning its operation, large numbers of people living in the vicinity (with effects felt up to a couple of kilometers away, I've heard. Ed) were reporting disturbing symptoms like frequent headaches, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, changes in ear pressure, feelings like motion sickness or the head being gripped in a vice...
Some people near the wind farm couldn't stand it any longer and were able to sell up their farm up and go but only the windfarm company wanted to buy it and then they had to sign a contract to keep quiet about their ordeal.
Speaking of quiet, these wind farms are not! They can emit infra sound and low frequency pulsing. (It must be like living in a high tech war zone, me thinks! Ed) Is it compliant with health and safety? Well, the local council is responsible for checking for compliance and conditions of their operation, but this is a task that's way over their heads, it was pointed out.
Currently there is a huge court case battle between a wind farm operator and 700 affected people in New Zealand, so that will be a good test case for Australia too. With no independent studies being done to assess human impacts, it will be up to these victims to help turn attention to the unsustainability of these windfarms, before too many more go in, all gung ho. There are 10 wind farms already in Victoria, and another 27 are planned and this includes one at Stockyard Hill, west of Ballarat, where 200 turbines are on the drawing board.
GEOMANTICA wonders what do the flora and fauna and devic kingdoms also think of these monstrosities? They are already notorious as bird execution devices
DIY Micro Wind Turbines
Is wind a safe way to generate power? Yes! but only when it's small scale, in your own backyard, not requiring big bad transmission lines and making you independent of the grid, that is very doable and heaps more sustainable. This is how Peter and I generate power when in Ireland and the makers of our household wind turbine (the Eirbyte team) are coming out to Australia in September 2010 to teach people how to construct their own, simple wind turbines using common materials (including recycled parts of cars).
Geomantica is excited to sponsor this important teaching tour and we are seeking expressions of interest from people who would like to participate. See the What's On section or the Events pages on this site.
You can check out the Eirbyte website at www.eirbyte.com and www.buildyourownwindturbine.com
It is with such grief and sadness that I send
this news to you of the Passing of Hamish Miller. Hamish was
a wonderful, kind, sensitive and generous man. He was a remarkable
Healer, Dowser and author of many books that informed and enlightened
us about the energies of the earth. He was a good friend and
I am indebted to him for the time that he spent dowsing the Labyrinths
on my property in Central Victoria, the Workshop that he gave
there and the hospitality he showed me when I stayed with him
and his partner Ba. I learnt so much from him and he was a person
that walked his talk and talked his walk, and I, along with so
many others will deeply miss him and his valuable presence on
this earth plane, he made a huge difference where it was needed
most.
He was also a skilled Blacksmith and he made dowsing rods that
were able to be used even on windy days. He also created many
metal sculptures which was another of our connections.
May his Vision live on.
Extracted from the Mastsanity (UK) website
There are now over 50,000 Mobile Phones Masts in the UK. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Masts can look like big towers that seem similar to pylons but don't have wires attached. They can be tall poles that look like lamp posts but don't have a light on top. Masts can also be what look like sticks or long grey or white boxes put at the top of buildings such as schools, hospitals, colleges, churches, flats and offices. They can even just be small boxes the size of burglar alarms, often placed on the sides of shops in shopping centres and along high streets.
Avoiding Mobile Phone masts is almost impossible.
What's Wrong With Masts?
'Cancer Clusters' have been found around Mobile Phone Masts,
up to 400 metres from a mast. People living near each other and
close to a mast have ended up with rare cancers at nearly the
same time as each other. These people live where they are getting
the strongest signal from the nearby mast(s). This has been the
case in Devon, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire.
It isn't just cancer! Other people living in these areas, close to masts commonly find they get many common symptoms including heart palpitations (flutters), lots of headaches, nose bleeds, problems sleeping, itchy burning skin and feel really depressed.
Mobile Phone Masts give out the same sort of microwave radiation in their signals as microwave ovens use to cook food but the signals also carry data sent along in packets or 'pulses'. Unfortunately the UK Government's Safety guidelines only give us short term protection from being cooked by the microwaves - they've ignored the evidence that microwaves can harm us without making us hot.
Many German and European doctors are so concerned that they have signed petitions such as the "Freiburger Appeal" to demand that Governments take the other health concerns over Mobile Telephone Masts more seriously. These Doctors have noticed more and more of the following health problems when Mobile Phone Masts have been put up in their areas:-
* Learning problems
* Trouble concentrating
* Behavioural disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
* Extremely high and extremely low Blood Pressure - and swapping
between the 2
* Medicines stop working as well, so prescriptions have to increase
* Heart Rhythms get upset, as does the immune system
* Sudden Heart Attacks and Strokes happening in younger and younger
people
* More Brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Motor
Neurone Disease and Epilepsy
* More Cancers, Leukaemia and Brain Tumours
* More and worse Headaches and Migraines
* More and worse sleeping disorders
* Constantly being tired, getting sleepless and being sleepy
during the day
* People feeling anxious all the time
* Ringing in the ears (Tinnitus)
* People more likely to get infections, colds, allergies and
viruses
* People feeling pains in their nerves and bodies for no apparent
cause
When Doctors in a town in Germany (West Kempten) decided to prove that it was the Mobile Phone Mast that was causing these problems they took lots of blood samples from people before and after a new mast was put up and turned on. The people also stopped using their mobiles, cordless phones, wireless internet and other wireless/mobile gadgets too.
The results were very clear. The levels of two vital chemicals serotonin and melatonin found in the blood were found to be seriously altered once the mast was turned on.
Serotonin levels were halved. Serotonin controls your mood, anger, aggression, body temperature, sleep, sexuality, appetite and metabolism. Many of the people found themselves feeling moody, depressed, tired, and lethargic. Some also felt agitated and had lost their appetites. Nearly all felt really down.
The people's Melatonin levels were too high during the day and much too low at night. Melatonin is a hormone that is important in boosting the immune system and fighting cancer. It protects your DNA from damage. Since it also helps regulate sleep you want it high at night time otherwise you will be restless at night and tired during the day. If your immune system isn't boosted enough you will become ill easier, stay ill longer and can't fight cancer so well.
The Doctors wanted the Mobile Phone Mast to be turned off again.
In another town in Germany (Naila) Doctors looked at nearly 1000 medical records. They found that patients who had lived within 400 metres of a mast for 10 years were much more likely to get cancer than those further away. Patients fell ill with cancer nearly 8 years younger. 5 years after the mast was installed the chance of people getting cancer near to the mast was 3 times higher than it was for people further away. Other studies have shown the same kind of pattern.
Some Scientists have also found that levels of nitric oxide and calcium ions in the body are upset by microwaves. Too much nitric oxide can lead to Multiple Sclerosis, diabetes and cancer, whilst too little can cause high blood pressure and damage your arteries.
Calcium ions are used by cells to communicate. If they leak out of cells they stimulate cancer cell growth. If too many get into cells the cells get damaged and your DNA gets broken up. This damages fertility.
What Can You do?
* Remember, There Is A Choice. If you really do care about your
friends, your family, yourself and the world you live in, please
do the following:
* Cancel Your Mobile Phone Contract ASAP if you have one (If you are worried about emergencies swap to "pay as you go" until you are happy to do without.)
* If you must keep your phone, use it as little as possible and just stick to talking and texting - ignore all other functions and activities.
* Realise that every call or text needs a mast, and that more calls or texts mean more masts nearby.
* Put Health First, NOT the profits of the Phone and Gadget companies. They will not pay for you to get well again, so don't give them the money to make you sick in the first place. You can't buy your health or your life back, nor those of your children or family, if they become ill or die.
* If you need to protect yourselves from nearby Mobile Phone Masts (remember microwave radiation from Mobile Phone Masts can extend for up to hundreds of metres, so it is not just houses right next to a mast that are affected), there are shielding materials that stop much of the microwave radiation.
*There are fabrics you can get online which help with conductivity, shielding & ESD protection, such as http://www.lessemf.com/fabric.html
*Keep TVs, laptops & mobiles out your bedroom at night to give your body a chance for more regenerative sleep.
*Crystals such as Sodalite, Black Tourmaline, Lepidolite & Amazonite placed around the home help absorb & neutralise EMF.
* Write to your MP and local Councillors to tell them that you too are concerned about the health issues and demand that they take real action.
* Take action by joining support groups such as Mast Sanity. You can't trust government to protect us! The Mobile Companies and Government claim that this technology is all safe - but they would since they are making Billions of pounds from it every year. They can't afford to admit that it's dangerous. Since when should we listen to the safety assurances from these people over and above independent scientists' warnings?
If nothing else look into the facts for yourself - take care to look at the work of truly Independent scientists, not those paid directly or indirectly from Government and the Telecom Companies.
From the Mastsanity website
If you would like to find out more info on this topic visit the
Mastsanity website:
by Anthony Ashworth
Building happiness, creating sanctuary.
Vastu is Yoga for your home. When correctly applied it brings about a sense of balance, harmony and peace in one's home or any built environment. Vastu can literally help foster happiness and contentment, a greater connection to nature, and to our true selves.
Vastu is about living in a harmonious and balanced place, a home
in vibrational sympathy not only with ourselves but with the
earth and the very elements that created the universe .
Simply put, Vastu shows us how to easily create homes that
will foster happiness and wellbeing for those living in them.
Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia
Vastu Shastra is the ancient poetic
science from India of place and space, developed by wise sages
in the last Golden Age of mankind some 20,000 years past. Vastu
Shastra literally translates to the Science of Dwellings.
Originally an oral tradition, ancient Vastu texts or Shastras
were written down thousands of years ago on folded palm leaf
scrolls and preserved deep inside mystic temples. These mystic
texts outline in great detail every aspect of creating and building
a positive, uplifting, peaceful environment.
Once we construct a space with walls and roof, we have created a miniature universe. "As above so below." All the forces that act in the universe act in the microcosm we have created as our homes. We too are made up of the very same Star stuff and we interact with the energy of our spaces. Vastu is a complete system giving us a detailed understanding of how physical and subtle energies work in and on a home, and how these energies then effect us, the occupants.
Amongst other energies the elements of earth, air, fire, water
and space exist in the universe, in nature, in a continuous exchange,
a flow, a constant dance of balance and rebalance. Vastu gives
us universal principles, guidelines and specific tools on how
to understand these energies and work with them within the microcosm
that is our home. Maximising positive energies and vibrations
and minimising negative influences. It also provides us with
a rich pallet of methods to energetically modify our existing
homes to provide the best possible positive energies.
These Vastu Shastras detail: how to select positive land, free
from negative energies; what to look out for in the surrounding
landscape; the ideal shapes for our houses; the relative placement
of rooms and furnishings, doors and windows; where and what direction
to sleep, through to the effects of colours; how geometry effects
energy; the importance of alignment to certain compass directions;
ideal building materials and their vibrational qualities, to
mention but a few aspects that Vastu may re-teach us.
Some of the principles as ascribed by Vastu were unconsciously
retained in other vernacular folk buildings around the world,
but rarely were the actual underlying principles of why these
building feel so good understood. These principles were largely
applied by merely copying age old traditions. However these folk
styles and methods may not suit our modern lifestyles, nor be
suitable for a climate or lifestyle other than the country of
origin. Vastu principles are universal and non-design specific,
in so much as they may be applied to any style as well as being
used to enhance existing spaces. With skilled understanding,
Vastu may now be applied to contemporary lifestyles and architecture.
At the end of our current age, known as the
dark ignorant age of the Kali Yuga, mankind is most disconnected
from Mother Earth, and from knowledge of true self. Vastu, along
with the other ancient Vedic sciences have re-emerged to help
support us to evolve and move forward.
Vastu shows us how to foster harmony and balance in our environment.
For those who know about Feng Shui, this might sound familiar.
Vastu is to Yoga as Feng Shui is to Tai Chi. Vastu is the great
grandfather of Feng Shui, and whilst I am not saying it's better
than Feng Shui, as a consultant in both Vastu and Feng Shui,
with my many years of research, Vastu certainly is the root from
which Feng Shui emerged and evolved. Both systems, have much
to teach us about how to create places that support the human
condition. Vastu perhaps puts more emphasis on fostering spiritual
support, whilst also supporting our physical and emotional wellbeing.
Borobodur, Indonesia
Tai Chi and Chinese medicine, thanks to the macrobiotic movement, reinvigorated the almost lost and largely forgotten art of Feng Shui. Similarly our appreciation in the west of Yoga and Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) together with the interest in Feng Shui has awakened a powerful giant from its sleep, Vastu.
Vastu was never completely forgotten in India, although it had largely fallen into disuse in secular buildings. It was kept alive for use only in important sacred buildings such as Hindu and Buddhist temples, where a deep understanding and appreciation of the power and of positive vibrational environments was not lost. The ancient Sanskrit texts, so called "Books of Knowledge" written on palm leaf scrolls and stowed away deep in the temples, slumbered awaiting a rebirth in the twenty first century.
Having spent time in many of these temple
complexes around the world, some of the more well know ones,
such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Madurai in India and Borobudur
in Indonesia, I can attest to the incredible and palpable power
and peace that emanate from them. They opened my heart and soul
and filled me with love and appreciation for life. Mere buildings,
bricks and stone, were able to deeply influence my consciousness
for the better.
Our very own homes can do the same.
Written by Anthony Ashworth a Geomancer, Vastu and Feng Shui consultant, teacher and researcher, passionate in his quest to determine and share the core needs of people with regard to space and place.
By Alanna Moore, February 2010.
For the past 26 years I have worked as a geomancer, assessing and balancing the subtle energies of places with pendulum dowsing and meditational attunement. It's akin to feng shui, but not formula oriented. A geomantic reading of a place seeks out the actual inherent energies there, so it's rather more indigenous than informed by Chinese cultural conditioning, as feng shui is. It thus requires openness and keen sensitivity. You never know what might show up. I often find high-tech radiation, or geopathic stress from unhealthy underground energies; or perhaps a desecrated sacred site that's causing 'bad vibes'.
On the other hand, beneficial energies can also be created or amplified, harnessed for enhancing plant growth in the garden or for making one's own backyard sacred site. Thus the hundreds of 'Towers of Power' I've been helping to create around Australasia and elsewhere (modeled on the ancient Round Towers of Ireland) have had some noteworthy effects for farmers and gardeners. I wrote a book on the subject in 2001 'Stone Age Farming eco-agriculture for the 21st century'.
For the past 22 years I have also been a keen permaculture practitioner. Permaculture is the ethical design of sustainable culture, mostly practiced in the form of eco-smart gardening systems. Developed in Australia in the 1970's, it has gone on to have a very positive impact on food security in many parts of the world. But this sustainable system of land development may lack sensitivity in its implementation. A macho approach to bulldozing can often leave a bad vibe in a place, for example.
However, even earthworks can be done with sensitivity. Implementing a geomantically informed permaculture design for sustainable living may alleviate environmental problems on many levels. I'm finding that the more sensitive, spiritual approach to land planning and Earth care is gaining a welcome resonance amongst people who are weary of the negativity and unsustainability of today's society. It can be a celebration of the sanctity of Mother Earth, indigenous Earth lore and the traditions of nature based spirituality.
The invisible dimensions of landscape are not merely energetic. They are also characterized by varying levels of consciousness, epitomised by universal traditions of the fairy/devic realms. I divide my time between Australia and Ireland, both places where knowledge of geomancy and the fairy world has survived relatively well, in understated undercurrents at the least. The Australian Aborigines and native Irish are highly intuitive peoples. Like other animist societies, the Irish believed that fairy beings help to care for their crops and livestock and thus the 'Good People' must always be thanked, and their homes and pathways respected. The Aboriginal people were (and often still are) acutely aware of the nature spirits around them and they may be intimately connected to the totemic nature beings that act as familiars to them.
Nature spirits (also known as devas) continue to be a dynamic force in landscapes, I've discovered in my life of professional dowsing experience, travel and teaching around the world. By dowsing and attunement I find exactly where the nature beings are stationed and thus help people to avoid disturbing them. I also seek the co-operation of the fairies to ensure harmonious co-existence. Swedish dowsers I've met have taken this approach further. They regularly consult with10 metre tall European forest trolls and they actively help the local devas to overcome debilitating effects of high-tech radiations, such as from mobile phone masts on hilltops. (This is the subject of a short film I have posted on-line, amongst my other Geomantica Films at YouTube.) Not just affecting the devas, sensitive people too (such as myself) suffer in the presence of such phone masts. Clusters of people reporting 'Microwave Sickness' symptoms are found in the vicinity of these insidious installations. Clearly, such energetic insults are not sustainable for continuing human existence.
Avoidance of such problems is always preferable and I actively defend sacred sites from such desecration wherever I can. In Australia in 2004, with a small group of determined locals, we fought a David and Goliath battle against Telstra erecting a 34m tall phone mast on top of the iconic Mount Franklin, the 'Uluru' of central Victoria, where I live (and famously depicted on Mt Franklin water bottles). After several days in a Melbourne VCAT tribunal, Telstra was defeated for the first time ever! It was thanks to the heritage overlay on the mountain that acknowledged its sacredness to Aboriginal people. That you can't desecrate registered sacred sites this way is law in Australia and Telstra hadn't done its homework. Other such victories against phone towers elsewhere have followed from this precedent. (I wrote about this saga in my 2004 book 'Divining Earth Spirit'.) However the proliferation of debilitating high-tech radiation in our beautiful landscapes in still increasing, thanks to industry thrusting ever higher levels of (typically unnecessary) technological complexity at us, such as digital tv and wireless broadband, also massive wind farms and the like. We lap them up at our peril!
In my seventh and latest book 'Sensitive Permaculture,
cultivating the way of the sacred Earth' (November 2009), I explain
how eliciting nature's help in the garden can foster harmonious
feng shui, as well as nourish our own inner, spiritual gardens.
It focuses on an energetic and loving approach to sustainable
land planning. For when we connect to the sacred dimensions of
life our activities can become positively life-affirming, festive
and joyful. This is our universal heritage.
.
I was just fighting with stacks of stone-circle
catalogues to collect some well-documented mean-size objects,
when Alanna told me I could surely be fascinated with a stone-circle
located at Lough Gur, Ireland. That time; I didn`t knew it were
a target, which would overtop many times all my expectations.
I began with studying details in the summary of Lough Gour mythotopography,
contained in the book - "Ireland: A Sacred Journey"
by Michael Dames and got enchanted with that place, rightaway.
Tom Four-Winds` photos - see "Grange Lios: Stone Circle"
under the address: http://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/421/Lough+Gur.htm
- played a part in that, too. On the net, there are many differing
names attached to this stone circle. Michael Dames has reminded
us of the
name, under which it is known among local inhabitants - Rannach
Crom Dubh stone circle.
Using my standard photomap-scanning procedure, I began to complete an inventory of yin and yang features present in the circle. Well; for that matter, you could do it easily by yourself; just take in one hand a pendulum and put into the other a pencil to mark the borders between yin and yang... and off you went. It`s a routine-like and highly boring activity, - that insight emerged in my mind, at that moment. Should I do an accountant`s work on the Imbolc`s Eve!? I went really mad and that probably triggered an enhanced emotional connection to this sacred place. From under my pencil, dynamically intertwined branches of Aines Garden and its flowers began to emerge. Scan No.1 - below, is the result of that short-circuit session. I haven`t tried to smooth it out, on purpose. I`ve just wanted to share with you the outburst of Aine`s (yellow) and Crom Dubh`s (green) Imbolc-energies "in statu nascendi", as if in a raw state, just as they came to my awareness, at that very moment. After a long and dark Scandinavian Midwinter-time; it`s been an uplifting experience.
Next day; I returned to my usual analytical
mood of action. I was trying to trace connections between the
Rannach Crom Dubh stone circle and other important sacred places
around Lough Gur. In the Michael Dames` presentation of local
lore, a Tree of Life existing "in the lake"
is regarded to be the uniting element of the environment. Now;
it is well known since the monumental works of XIX - XXc. mythographers
(e.g. J.G. Frazer), - that "water" stands in folk and
prehistoric lore for female energies and a primaeval state of
the World. Comparative mythography says also (see e.g. works
of Mircea Eliade) that an island in a roundish lake is a given
choice for a role of a local symbolic First Land rising once
a year from enigmatic primaeval waters. (Lough-Gur Tree can be
seen once in seven years) Tree of Life is an embodiment of same
idea, which an insular First Land stands for, from the mythotopographical
point of view. It is from such a "first island", which
re-emerges from dark waters and it is from the all-embracing
Tree of Life, that the primaeval Life Energy is to come. After
that pondering, it became clear to me that the local Tree of
Life should be searched for in Knockadoon, which was once an
island in the middle of Lough Gur.
In the Google-Earth photomap, at the northern shore of the lake and below Oenach racecourse (Knockfennel), I`ve happened to discover something like a natural or artificial "cursus" going down the slope towards the lake. It is coinciding with one of the major yin - paths. Maybe it was memorized and anded down the generations as one of the tracks of the Silent Coach (Coitse Bodhar). Owner and occupant of that coach was Aine. She is told to summon a herdsman from Knockfennel once - to play his bagpipes at a nightly ball and "he was carried off in Her carriage, sitting beside Her". As Michael Dames says later on, though, - a better way to approach the hidden Otherworld is following the gods, while staying unnoticed by them. Shall we jump upon the Silent Coach from behind and delve with it into the "waters"!? Some results of a suchlike drive are presented in the Scan No.2. The branch of the Lough-Gur tree, which goes NE-NW through the north- west cliffs of Knockadoon, looks out to dominate its whole layout.
Rannach Crom Dubh stone-circle (ca 2500 BCE)
is claimed to be the largest in Ireland. Quite naturally; it
mirrors the needs and aspirations of its constructors and expectations
they had on local gods and their life-energies. Locations of
the small circle (2) and the Tree Stone (3) - together with the
position of the RCD circle on the yin-path leading to the crossing
of strongest yin-paths of the lake (1), - seem to be chosen to
enhance sacred-marriage rituals, which should influence the local
potential of fecundity. At the time of the construction, quite
probably the Crom-Dubh type entiety was conceived both as a partner
(yang energy) and a divine son (lower-tao energy) of Aine.
A later time approach to the distribution of the fecundity potential
is exemplified by the Oenach racecourse. A winner of those races
was probably believed to secure a better part of the fecundity
potential for his home settlement. That place could have
risen in importance yet, later on, as Michael Dames writes about
competitors coming from other counties, too. At a later stage
of development, engaging Aine (or a priestess) in a "sacred
marriage" probably ceased to be the prize of the race. The
folktale of a bagpipe-player, mentioned above, maybe have retained
a memory of bagpipe-contests, which accompanied the races. The
Silent Coach of Aine could have driven from the racecourse down
the slope - as may be inferred from the Scan No.2, and then (under
water) towards the crossing (1). Further on; the track probably
continued to the ruins of the Norman castle (Black Castle). According
to Michael Dames; after winning the races, Fionn and the chosen
ones of his Fianna went to Dun Guaire for a victory feast. It
is the strongest yang-node in this environment. Special bonds
(double yang-lines) are connecting it to the outliers (2; 3)
of the RCD sanctuary.
Until now; we were talking branches (tracks) and nodes of the Tree of Life but not where would it precisely stand. In some traditions (e.g. in Upanishads), it`s being differentiated between a male and a female Tree of Life. At first glance, it`s evident that the male Tree could have been meant to stand at Dun Guaire. On the contrary to that, it`s not so easy to point out a precise location for a "trunk" of the female Tree. Northwestern cliff of Knockadoon has many recognized sacred yin-places. Tom Four-Winds describes a Hag Stone, located opposite the Garret Island. Further to NE, Michael Dames localizes Leac Rudraighe Rueidh cave. Then, they both point to the Tir Na n` Og cave location at the northern end of the cliff. Michael Dames has more informations on caves, stones and visions experienced there. It is his description of Suideachan - the Housekeeper`s Chair, that fits best a dominant yin-centre, in which a female Life-Tree could stand. Aine comes up from Tir Na n`Og there - to sit down upon that stone for "giving birth". Some people are told to have seen Her sitting there, as if a Queen in Her Throne. Summarily; the multitude of yin sacred places along the cliff suggests a female Life-Tree layout more like that of a multi-trunk banyan-tree, with a crown spread widely around as is the presence of Aine throughout the Lough-Gur territory.
Conclusions
1. This overview of the situation of the Rannach Crom Dubh stone circle - within the Lough Gur life-energy field, has confirmed my conviction that the megalithic structures shouldn`t be investigated separately from their local nets of interaction. In reviewing such nets, natural sacred places (caves, stones, lakes, etc.) and their energies should be necessarily taken into account. Female energies and their rulers were meant to come to human-made sanctuaries just from such places. It`s been corroborated by the mythotopography of this environment, compiled by Michael Dames in his book - "Ireland: Sacred Journey", which I have used as a starting platform for my investigations.
2. With the present geomantic essay, I conclude a series, which have started with the "Back to the Sidh" article (Issue 39). It continued with two pieces on Greek sacred traditions (42; 43) and then came an essay on the picturesque Giant of Cerne Abbas (44). Under that time, I studied Alanna`s descriptions of meeting devas, contained in her books. At the end, it came up to my mind that I was missing something important in my life. When back home after rambling sacred areas of other countries, I used unwittingly to block my awareness of sacred places and their wardens, present close around me. Now I`ve got no choice but have to open my senses to the multitude of nature spirits dwelling among archipelagoes, woods and lakes of my close environment. Thank you, Alanna, for leading me towards that insight.
3. With my articles; I didn`t intend to present to you any kind of ancient geomancy in a coherent and exhaustible manner. My intention was rather of a modest practical nature. It was perhaps only to show that myths were dowsable. By that, I`d meant that standard preparatory measures for a sacred-place dowsing should start with mythotopography of its surroundings. Narratives of local sensitives are the most dependable source of it, which has been proved anew by Michael Dames in his description of Lough Gur setting. A next step of preparations could be a far-dowsing in Google-Earth photomaps. It would allow you for positioning a targeted sacred place within the local interaction nets. Prepared in this way; you`d have no problems with navigating among lines and paths coming in and out of an ancient sanctuary. Thanks for your company under my wanderings and best wishes of a fruitful dowsing season to all of you.
Bogdan Nowakowski February 2010
Stockholm - Sweden All rights reserved
danek@comhem.se
Here is a book to inform and delight. A poetic trip into tribal lands where ancient cultural paradigms describe an animate universe of intelligent nature in which the people are inextricably linked. It is also a "profound celebration of the wonder of human genius and spirit as brought into being by culture."
Canadian anthropologist author Davis read from this book for the CBC 2009 Massey Lectures, which also featured in an ABC Radio National series. One sunny Sunday afternoon driving along in my car and switching on to this lecture I was soon transported to the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, visualizing amazing Polynesian navigators, traversing its length and breadth from about 3000 years ago. Eagerly I awaited each week for the next readings from the book, which shine a sensitive light on ancient wisdoms ranging from Aboriginal Australia to the Inuit of Wade's northern homeland of Canada and the steamy jungles of Amazonia. They were all a delight to hear.
You can find out more and listen to these
lectures on the ABC radio website at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/default.htm
or its Canadian equivalent:
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey/2009/episode-1.html
Below are some quotes from Wade from a couple
of these lectures.
Lecture 3, Peoples of the Anaconda, broadcast ABC 11 February
2010
"For the people living today in the forests of the Piraparana the entire natural world is saturated with meaning and cosmological significance. Every rock and waterfall embodies a story. Plants and animals are but distinct manifestations of the same essential spiritual essence...At the same time, everything is more than it appears; for the visible world is only one level of perception. Behind every tangible form, every plant and animal, is a shadow dimension, a place invisible to ordinary people but visible to the Shaman.
"There is no beginning and end in Barasana thought, no sense of a linear progression of time, destiny, or fate. Theirs is a fractal world in which no event has a life of its own, and any number of ideas can coexist in parallel levels of perception and meaning. Scale succumbs to intention. Every object must be understood, as Stephen told me, at various levels of analysis. A rapid is an impediment to travel but also a house of the ancestors, with both a front and a back door. A stool is not a symbol of a mountain; it is in every sense an actual mountain, upon the summit of which sits the shaman. A row of stools is the ancestral anaconda, and the patterns painted onto the wood of the stools depict both the journey of the ancestors and the striations that decorate the serpent's skin. A corona of oropendola feathers really is the sun, each yellow plume a ray. The infinite elements of the Barasana world spin like a carousel in the mind, and there is no one obvious point of departure for even a modest attempt to explain the profundity of the peoples' intuitions about the meaning of being alive - save perhaps the maloca, the longhouse, which is both a physical space in which the people live and a cosmic model of the entire universe.
Lecture 4 - Sacred Geography
"Between southern Colombia and Bolivia there are today 6 million people who speak Quechua, the language of the Inca, as their mother tongue. They are for the most part farmers, and their gifts to the world have included the potato and tomato, tobacco, maize, quinine, and coca. To them, the land is literally alive. The mountains are mystical beings that gather the rain, create weather, bring fertility to the soil and abundance to the fields, or in their wrath sow destruction and chaos, unleashing deadly storms or frosts that can destroy in mere moments the work of a year, as occurred in 1983 when hail in fifteen minutes wiped out the entire corn crop of the vast Cusco region.
"Every community in the southern Andes is still dominated by a specific protective mountain deity, an Apu that directs the destiny of those born in its shadow. Thus with each step the people even today walk through a landscape they believe to be sacred. Just as the traditional agricultural economy remains based on the exchange of labour, so too reciprocity defines the connection between the community and the land, ritual obligations and relationships never spoken about and never forgotten. Pachamama and the apus will nurture a people, as long as they in turn are treated with proper care and reverence.
"When men and women meet on a trail, they pause and exchange k'intus of coca, three perfect leaves aligned to form a cross. Turning to face the nearest apu they bring the leaves to their mouths and blow softly, a ritual invocation that sends the essence of the plant back to the earth, the community, the sacred places, and the souls of the ancestors. The exchange of leaves is a social gesture, a way of acknowledging a human connection. But the blowing of the phukuy, as it is called, is an act of spiritual reciprocity, for in giving selflessly to the earth, the individual ensures that in time the energy of the coca will return full circle, as surely as rain falling on a field will inevitably be reborn as a cloud. This subtlety of gesture, in its own way a prayer, is celebrated on a grand scale in annual community-based rituals of commitment and engagement."
These paragraphs are extracted from Wade Davis' wonderful book "The Wayfinders - Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World". A must-read!
'Blue Mountains Dreaming
Reviewed by Alanna Moore:
The upper Blue Mountains, a short distance west of Sydney, are the home to the Gundungurra people, while the lower mountains are Dharug territory; the Aboriginal people of New South Wales being collectively known as Kooris.
In this book there's a lot of general information about Aboriginal society in the Blue Mountains region. Archaeology, the odd creation legend, fragments of history Very small maps of sites - such as occupation sites, stone arrangements , axe grinding grooves and cave paintings and rock engravings but unfortunately too small to use as a guide for visiting any. Over 700 such sites have been recorded. Generally the location of these sites is concurrent with modern settlement patterns along the mountain ridges, however the Aboriginal sites reached out further along the secondary ridges. The oldest occupation site in the Sydney basin is high on the Kings Tableland dated back to 22,000 years ago, at around the height of the Ice Age.
The Dreaming defined
Of the Dreaming concept Stockton defines it thus: "the whole
land and all it contains is a living spiritual entity. It is
a sacrament of the Dreaming, in that it both reveals and channels
the life forces let loose in the past by ancestral heroes in
a creative burst, that continues in the present and manifests
itself in the living. Each human being is affiliated with another
living species, his or her totem, since both derive a sacred
life force from a common ancestor, whose appearance in the Dreaming
exploits was sometimes in human sometimes in animal form. The
stories of these exploits, taught to initiates and celebrated
in corroborrees, recounts how these mythic beings travelled across
a formless surface, creating the land and its denizens, establishing
the Law of their kind and leaving something of themselves in
the features of the landscape. Hence the whole landscape, especially
sacred sites and tracks, is alive and energized by the ancestral
beings."
Ceremonial sites
Associations exist at some sites in the central region between
rock engravings and stone arrangements and these sites with "concentrations
of artworkin an area which appears to have been widely visited
but lightly occupied strongly suggest territory given over to
ceremonial activity", suggests Stockton (and others) and
some of these "may mark the boundary between the Dharug
and the Gundungurra people, a sort of no-man's land serving as
an inter-tribal ceremonial ground, of which there are parallels
among the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Middle East". Similar
such sites (associations of rock engravings and stone arrangements)
are found in localities such as Kings Tableland, Red Ridge, Mt
Hay Ridge, Hat Hill, Asgard Swamp, Mt Banks Ridge and Mt Bell.
"Even the casual visitor will attest to the special 'feel'
and the open elevated topograghy these spots have in common,"
we are told.
The rock engravings that are often re-cut over time are considered to have the greater spiritual significance, compared to paintings of ochre and charcoal. One Aboriginal woman called Queen Gooseberry was quoted from 1847 as saying that "tribespeople kept away from such sites, except for special occasions when dances or ceremonies took place, because 'too much debbil walk about there' ".
Stockton asserts that the concentration of engraving sites in the central region along the Woodford to Linden ridge line marks it out as especially sacred, probably once the favoured sites for ceremony and initiation, with a linear north-south distribution of sites suggesting a network, and this arrangement "overall fits the idea of a Dreaming track, of which there are abundant parallels in north and north west Australia". Near present day Linden a pyramidal pile of stones was recorded in 1813 and this was incorrectly reconstructed a 100 odd years ago. It may have a cairn associated with a pilgrimage site.
One most unusual site at Woodford has a rock carving of several concentric circles, in a style unique in the Sydney region but common out west in the inland of New South Wales. "Concentric circles figure in much of the art of inland Australia" says Stockton "and is one of the most sacred of Aboriginal symbolssaid to have a range of related references, such as a waterhole, mother, mother's breast, campsite, sacred site, generally suggesting a source of life force."
An interesting stone arrangement (mentioned on page 74) was discovered in 1977 after bushfires. This was an avenue of stones approaching the Bora Ground on Woodford Ridge. The author similarly found a series of stone circles at Hat Hill Blackheath and a line of cairns along a ridge south-west of Mt Hay. Bora grounds were circular areas used for ceremony and dance.
Loop like engravings "may be seen as womb like motifs...(or) might recall the ground plan for the Bunan initiationand (is) seemingly reproduced at the Woodford Bora Ground. In parts of Australia initiation conveyed a strong sense of rebirth for the initiates."
In this book we are given tiny tantalizing glimpses of the Dreaming. But we must remember protocol it is unwise to publicise the exact whereabouts of the fragile relics of the past for fear of unwanted negative attention. Keep the sacred secret!
A single god?
A fascinating insight into the spirituality of the south-eastern
First Australians comes on page 53 when Stockton explains the
case for a single god: Baiami (also called Bunjil and Daramulan
in other regions). Where Europeans first settled we find the
concept of a High God who created the Earth and established the
Law and then went to live in the sky, from where he takes an
interest in his creations, most particularly in the initiation
of boys into manhood.
"This was conducted at a Bora Ground marked out by two open circles of banked earth at either end of a path, and by mounded prone sculptures of cult figures and carved trees." This cult of a supreme sky hero was unusual among Aborigines prior to their contact with Europeans. Tony Swain, in his article, 'A new sky hero from a conquered land', argues persuasively that the cult of Baiami was a religious innovation in reaction to the first settlement of Sydney and that it rapidly spread to the expanding edges of the colony, overlying the earlier stratum of the more generalised traditional religion. Throughout Aboriginal Australia there are many well documented records of innovations introduced into traditional ceremony after contact with Europeans." Missionaries, for example, in Wellington in 1831 report the staging of a new corroborree in honour of Baiami that was "brought there from a distance by strange natives who went about teaching it.
"Tony Swain suggests that these 'strange natives' quite possibly came form the environs of Sydney, where the religious art included the depiction of a sailing vessel and a representation of Baiami with a prominent pair of horns, there being no horned animals in Australia before the introduction of European stock. The ground sculptures of Bora grounds, representing Baiami's first camp and his gifts of creation, were later described by RH Matthews to include domestic stock, vehicles, clothed effigies of blacks and whites and other items of European culture."
Such was the carnage from disease and warring that the Aboriginal population was severely decimated within a short time after European invasion and their were dispossessed of the land that is so central to their spirituality. So much knowledge/lore/history was lost in the process. So Stockton's hypothesis is that "the earlier stratum of religion in our area was of the more generalized sort found throughout the continent. Such a religion was thoroughly Earth based." In this new view of the world "creative powers once posited in a number of ancestral spirits were now concentrated in one All-Father. In Swain's opinion the Bora was the principal means of placating Baiami. In the Blue Mountains one might imagine the campfires around which the dwindling bands thrashed out the new gospel and the bared ridge tops where new ceremonies were being tried out. The way across the mountains was itself a principal conduit for the westward movement of belief in Baiami."
This all makes sense to me! I have never been comfortable with the supreme sky hero scenario, it just didn't seem right. A tragic parallel of cultural loss came to light in a tv documentary screened here in February about the observations of the first white people who went down the Amazon River in South America in the 16th century. They documented cities and huge agricultural regions in what is now thick jungle. But they and others spread whiteman's diseases that then caused that large and sophisticated population crash down to an estimated 10%, after which those First Peoples abandoned agriculture, which required a high level of knowledge and organisation, and became the hunter gatherers they are still today.
The Real Significance of the Blue Mountains
Dreaming
The spiritual significance of the Blue Mountains in the Australian
context is not mentioned in this book. However I was living in
North Katoomba in the late 1980's and was friends with Aboriginal
artist Burri Jerome who also lived there for a few years. Burri
was interviewed by local paper journalist Sheridah Melvin in
1988 about the significance of the sacred sites of the Blue Mountains
and I treasure that press clipping!
The story starts: "While the eye of Australia
is Uluru, the backbone of the country is the Blue Mtns - a sacred
and precious place that holds the Dreamings of the rest of the
land. As for our famous Three Sisters [a rock formation], they
are amongst the most sacred of all natural formations in the
land down under."
Burri says that Uluru and the Three Sisters are inextricably
linked. Since 1985 Burri had been in the Blue Mountains enacting
his ancient tribal role as a teacher and artist, the role of
Gundir. He returned (after living there as a child) on a sacred
mission to renew the Dreaming of the Three Sisters, at the bequest
of Aboriginal elders in Redfern (Sydney).
"The Blue Mountains are so important to Koori people because it is a sacred area for the whole of Australia" said Burri.
Burri referred to the many sacred sites there but wouldn't divulge their whereabouts, as he didnt want them getting any negative attention. But he did draw an intriguing stylised map of them that could be worked out if people put their minds to it.
He did talk at length about my favourite sacred site there, the one that we both lived near - Minni Ha Ha Falls, on the edge of the huge Blue Mountains National Park, resplendent with sandstone cliffs of jagged shapes and graced by gnarly old gum trees. I spent a lot of time there weeding and meditating with a group of environmentally minded women friends. I also used to take women there during women's spirituality weekends that I ran in the late 80's and we would often dance naked beneath the water fall, at this initiation ground for Aboriginal women, which used to have a 'bottomless' pool under it, now silted up. The Koorie women used to dive off from the rocks high above, during initiation rituals, I was told. In modern times Kooris, all well dressed and obviously city folks, are often seen hanging around this beautiful spot, locals told me. Fortunately the sacredness of this public site on the edge of the National Park is kept low key....
Burri stated that this site is "the initiation site of the old women" . There's also a Yowie Dreaming site around there associated with little hairy human-like creatures/spirits. He says that when people that go there and are disrespectful, ie chop at trees, vandalise etc, then the Yowie will show themselves or cause mayhem and mischief. "Yowie faces are in the rocks of Minni Ha Ha Falls as spirit guardians" said Burri.
"The Aboriginal name for Minni Ha Ha is Wyla, a black cockatoo with a yellow tail... Burri describes Minni Ha Ha as 'the focal point of the Dreaming energy of the Blue Mtns. It's the initiation ground of the old women. It's their healing place and it's not just within the old, it's also the new'....It's the healing place for anyone who wishes it to be, as with any sacred area'."
These days Burri lives in northern New South Wales and is a well known artist. Minni Ha Ha is no more the weed infested mess of the '80's and it's definately worth a visit. Signposted from North Katoomba, it's at the northern end of that part of town,
This book, published November 2009, has become
an instant Python Press best seller!
Here is what readers and reviewers have said so far
"...An adventure in magical and practical Earth awareness" Nexus magazine, Australia
"A very practical and thoughtful guide for the eco-spiritual gardener, bringing awareness to the invisible dimensions of our landscape" Rainbow News, New Zealand
" It is a delight to have read 'Sensitive Permaculture'. Thankyou for your words of wisdom" Callie
You have made permaculture so easy and alive---and sweet" Joy (Taiwan)
"I really enjoyed the book and found
it hard to put down"
Celia Leverton,
Permaculture Association of Tasmania
"Lovely book!"
Morgana
Pagan Federation, Holland