Stone chambers: Native temples

A stone chamber is defined as a Native temple covered with a stone slab roof, in which the stones were quarried without the use of metal drills.  There are around 500 of these structures extant in the Northeast.  Their distribution is largely confined to southern New England and the southeastern portion of New York state.  To the north, chambers occur into central Vermont and New Hampshire.  There is perhaps one example in the state of Maine.   They extend into Westchester County in southeastern New York.  There are rumors of several examples west of the Hudson River and into eastern Pennsylvania, but with a few scattered exceptions, these are unconfirmed.  The densest concentration is found in Putnam County, NY, on the east bank of the Hudson, just north of Westchester, where around 200 examples occur within that county or immediately outside its borders.  The second-densest concentration occurs in New London County in southeastern Connecticut, with probably around 50 extant chambers.  Windsor County in central Vermont probably has somewhat less than New London County.  Together, these three counties account for the majority of stone chambers in America.  These are not designed as root cellars, which are found in the cellars of Colonial homes.  Some chambers are entirely or partially out of the ground, precluding their use for food storage.  These range from tiny examples of perhaps a foot or two of cubic volume on up to massive structures of over 300 square feet in floor plan.  There are many more Native foundations which were never roofed with stone slabs, and which apparently were covered with timber.  Both the chambers and foundations serve as entrances into the Earth Mother, and frequently are designed to be illuminated by the sun or moon on key calendrical events.  The example illustrated below is on the Eastern Pequot reservation in Ledyard, CT, land never owned by Whites.

Early references to stone chambers (called “stone houses” or “stone forts”) are reproduced below:

Notes to Wawekas Hill, or Mohegan’s Watchtower and Tombstone, c. 1769, apparently written by Mr. Hide of Norwich, as reproduced in Bulletin 34, Archaeological Society of Connecticut, 1966, p. 41-44:
“Aged people whose fathers remembered the days of Uncas, . . . uniformly called [Wawekas H]ill by the name of the Indian Watch Tower. . . . The Fort upon this Hill was a large square building erected in the Indian manner of unpolished stone, without mortar, embanked with earth. The remains of this structure have been visible until within a few years. It probably stood in good repair in the days of Uncas; and though more than one hundred thirty years have passed since that time, but for the depredations of those who wished to enclose their farms with stone fences, it might have stood firmly at the present day.”

• F. M. Caulkins, History of Norwich, 1866; p. 23:
“Waweekus Hill . . . [the] ancient name of Fort Hill.”   [Miss Caulkins provides the original name of what had by then become known as simply "Fort Hill."]

• Robert Boucher, unpublished MSS c.1990 on the earliest deeds of New London, CT:
“. . . the land records show the existence of ‘Stone Houses’ or ‘Indian Forts.’   . . . They seem to have all been built on a hill which invariably acquired the name of ‘Fort Hill.’ . . . To date, the writer has isolated the location of three of these Indian forts.”  

Boucher’s footnotes list these as: 1) Laid out to Richard Douglas – 4/11/1733; 2) William Hough to Richard Blinman – 6/5/1656; 3) Samuel Rogers to James Rogers Sr. – 2/15/1669

Boucher’s use of the word ‘fort’ echoes the term Pynchon used in 1654 (reproduced on our home page): “a stonewall and strong fort .”

A very minor percentage of stone chambers are clearly not ancient.  This is sometimes revealed by their architecture (which differs from the vast majority of chambers) and the presence of drill holes in the stones which comprise the walls and roof of a chamber.  The presence of drill holes in a chamber does not preclude the possibility of it being ancient.  Many chambers have been repaired since c. 1750, when drill marks first begin to appear in the stone record in New England.  Such repaired chambers — which were recycled for uses including root cellars, housing and storage sheds — often reveal their antiquity by an absence of drill marks on the lowest courses of stones.  These lower courses are generally the most stable and least subject to needing repair from tree uprootings or other events which conspire to dismantle chambers. 

Root Cellars?

Many have confused Native stone chambers with Colonial or later root cellars. While there are small numbers of detached root cellars, these are normally easy to distinguish from ancient chambers because their design is not typical of that displayed in chambers.  While it is understandable that a cursory examination of one or several chambers could lead to a root cellar conclusion, this does not bear up when the entire corpus of chambers is given careful scrutiny.  Such an examination reveals the following:

• The early accounts reproduced above make clear that chambers were found by the first European settlers.

• The size of some chambers precludes a food storage use.  Some are as small as about one cubic foot while others are as large as several hundred cubic feet.  Both make little sense in terms of storing crops. >>›››More›››

• The distribution of chambers makes no sense agriculturally.  Putnam County, NY (home to around 40% of the extant chambers) is a region of miserable terrain.  For this reason it was the last portion of the lower Hudson Valley to be settled.   The first settlers did not arrive until c. 1750.  The county was never an agricultural district because it was too hilly and mountainous to produce many crops.  Most agriculture was confined to sheep and dairy farming.  The distribution of the chambers within the county is heavily weighted toward the three towns within its center and which possess the worst terrain within the county.  If chambers were designed to store agricultural produce, their distribution should be uniform across not only New England, but the rest of the Eastern states as well.  They should not be confined to areas where often the very least amount of produce was grown.

• Root cellars require ventilation and insulation from temperature extremes.  A small number of chambers (consistent in design with the vast majority of chambers) are built fully or partially out of the ground.  Almost all the chambers lack transverse ventilation, without which produce will soon rot from molds and the buildup of ethylene gas produced by the fruits and vegetables to hasten their own ripening. >>›››More›››

• External root cellars must be sealed by a door or a pair of doors to insulate the interior from temperature extremes.  Most chambers make no provision in their design for the attachment of a door.  Those which have been recycled and today possess a door have had door jambs inserted into their entrances.  In many cases, the entry into chambers is absurd it terms of both sealing the opening and facilitating the transportation of produce through the entrance.  A doorway 99 inches high in a large, formal chamber is far too high to easy seal.  On the other end of the height scale, some chambers require entrants to crawl into them.  >>›››More›››

• Mavor and Dix were the first to examine the possibility that chambers are astronomically oriented.  Since then, it has become abundantly clear that many are.  One common design is adark-half of the year chamber:  light from the rising sun will first penetrate to one corner of the base of the rear wall on the autumnal equinox, touch the opposite corner on the winter solstice, and then return to the original corner on the vernal equinox.

• Many chambers (along with U-shaped constructions) will have an anchoring boulder on the right side (when facing in) of the front entrance.  It is not known if there are any left-side anchoring boulders.  This is further evidence of chambers being ritualized, sacred architecture. 

It would be an omission to not mention the close correspondence between chambers and U-shaped structures.  Both are different styles of the same thing: artificial, ritualized entrances into the Earth Mother.  Chambers differ from the U-shaped constructions in possessing a stone slab roof and are generally more formal constructions evidencing greater complexity and size.  But this does not always hold true.  A comparison of numerous chambers and U-shaped constructions reveals both to be separate aspects of the same basic design.

Foundations

Foundations are identical to many chambers with one exception: a lack of a stone slab roof.  This allowed many foundations to be built to much greater dimensions than could be easily spanned by a stone slab roof, although very small foundations also occur.  . . . . (to be continued)

Located in the heart of modern-day New England stand sites of such great antiquity; sites so enigmatic, so sophisticated and seemingly inexplicable, serious scientists and archaeologists have denied their study because of their monumental implications: it would force them to throw away their preconceived notions about the achievements of ancient man into the historical garbage can.

Mystery Hill, the Upton Cave, Calendar I and Calendar II, Gungywamp and Druid’s Hill are just several of the names given some incredibly important historical sites of which many have never heard a whisper. But their existence—and their importance—is becoming harder and harder to hide as more are discovered and interested folk become exposed to their grandeur.

Sometime in the late 1600s or early 1700s, early American colonists began discovering and utilizing underground “root cellars” made of large but manageable pieces of dressed stone as storage houses for food stuffs. Colonists were also finding numerous stone buildings, usually of “one story, circular or rectangular in form, and up to 30 feet in length and up to 10 feet wide and eight feet high or more.” Many included roof slabs or lintels of several tons. Many also had carefully crafted openings in their roofs which allowed a small amount of light to pass through to the interiors. The colonial newcomers were convinced that these so-called root cellars had been constructed by the former Amerind inhabitants of the area—irrespective of the fact that their Indian neighbors showed little hint of an ability to work in large stone or the desire to do so. Before long, the inheritors of these properties thought their own American ancestors had built these cellars—some which were eighty feet deep and lined the entire way with roughly hewn stone.

Simultaneously, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of oddly-inscribed flagstones were being found in the surrounding New England woods, carted off by farmers for use in stone walls or in larger stone structures in the settlements of the growing northeast. The angular cuts on these stones looked much like the marks a plow makes when it strikes a submerged piece of stone—at least they looked that way to most of the simple country farmers of the day. Others believed the markings appearing in rocks all across New England were “the action of the roots of trees.” For decades nothing at all was thought of them. As any New Englander can tell you, the entire northeast is strewn with large chunks of striated stone material left from the last era of glacial recession.

But a local Puritan clergyman, Cotton Mather, was not convinced. In 1712 he discovered some strange incisions on an exposed seaside rockface in Dighton, Massachusetts—far from where any plow could have marked it. He immediately wrote to the Royal Society in London, England, to inform them of his find and to convey his belief that the rock carvings were in fact an ancient scriptural alphabet—perhaps several differing ancient alphabets. Unexpectedly, his letter generated little interest. The scientists of the Royal Society were already busy exploring newly discovered rock inscriptions in neighboring Ireland. These European inscriptions were later identified as Irish Hinge Ogam, a form of Gaelic Keltic writing unknown for centuries and stubbornly undecipherable. It is referred to as “hinge” Ogam because a central dividing line or a facet edge was used to separate the subtly different individual characters. Little did anyone know at the time, the inscriptions found on both sides of the Atlantic were firmly connected.

Yet how could Celtic writing, a style reminiscent of that from the first millennium B.C., be in America? Who were the authors of the many rock engravings? How could the carvers possibly have gotten to America a thousand years before the birth of Christ? Why had they come and what evidence is there to support such a far-fetched notion? And what of the large stone structures found across the American northeast, eerily similar to types found in Europe?

The answers were being spoken loudly and clearly if someone could only listen to what the rocks and buildings themselves had to say. But time seemed to be running out. Thousands of the inscribed rocks were being broken up for building material and the larger stone structures were being dismantled or vandalized, destroying the monumental works of these mysterious builders.

For answers, we first turn to an odd stone arrangement found in the hills of New England. The Mystery Hill complex, the largest and most sophisticated of its kind in North America, covers over 30 acres and is composed of monolithic standing stones, stone walls and underground chambers, most of which are aligned to obvious astronomical points. Even now the site can be used as an accurate yearly calendar utilizing the stones set up over two thousand (perhaps as long as 5,000) years ago. The lack of household artifacts and grave goods leads us to believe that the site was a ceremonial center and neither living quarters nor a “city.”

Over the years the more interesting features and structures on-site have been given un-scientific names that insinuate inferred function. The “Watch House” is the name given to a chamber structure located outside the main complex at Mystery Hill. The roof is a massive, quarried slab of granite of several tons. On the back wall of the chamber the stones contain a high percentage of white quartz, a stone found in its pure form in many of the neolithic structures over the world and treasured by ancient peoples for its reflective qualities. This particular chamber is aligned to the February first sunrise and lunar minor south. At sunrise on this date the sunlight enters the entrance of the chamber and slowly moves along one wall until it illuminates the quartz crystals at the back wall, making the semi-precious gems sparkle noticeably. February first was one of the eight most important divisions of the Keltic year as we shall discuss in more detail later.

The “Oracle Chamber” is one of the most interesting and important structures located at Mystery Hill—or anywhere for that matter. It is significantly larger than any other chamber found at the site and contains unique characteristics found nowhere else in any of the other megalithic sites in New England.

A 4 inch by 6 inch shaft, lined with thin facing stones, runs from the exterior and enters through the interior wall at about chin level. The “Speaking Tube,” as it is called, emerges above ground, yet concealed underneath a sacrificial altar with runnels. It would seem that the speakers within the Oracle Chamber could talk into the tube, their voices warped and amplified, carrying up to the altar above and creating quite an impressive sound to a group of worshippers who might be gathered around the altar—in effect making the altar talk.

Also found across the Mystery Hill site are huge monolithic standing stones (some now fallen) all of which line up to sun, moon or star alignments as seen from a central viewing slab located by one of the earlier researchers at the site. From this slab, monoliths align to the Midwinter solstice sunrise and sunset, the November one sunrise and sunset, the Spring and Fall Equinox sunrises and sunsets, the May one sunrise and sunset, the Midsummer solstice sunrise and sunset, the August one sunrise and sunset and true north (this stone is aligned to the star Thuban, the pole star of 2,000 B.C.). On these days the sun will either rise or set above worked monolith stones. Exact alignments coincide, according to scholars and astronomers, with a date of 2499 B.C. to 1900 B.C.

Other impressive constructions on the site include a number of underground chambers with clear astronomical alignments. The calendrical orientations of these slab-roofed chambers, it would seem, would rule out these structures being constructed as root cellars by early American colonists or the woodlands Indians of the northeast as neither were concerned with alignments that coincide with the most important of yearly Keltic celebrations. Further, noted archaeo-astronomer Byron Dix has determined that New England is replete with underground chambers. He says, “ there are some 105 astronomically aligned chambers in Massachusetts, 51 in New Hampshire, 41 in Vermont, 62 in Connecticut, 12 in Rhode Island, and 4 in Maine.”1 Suffice it to say, it is obvious that the alignments found at Mystery Hill and other sites are not random.

One of the central features of the Mystery Hill site is the sacrificial table/altar. It is a 4.5 ton grooved slab whose purpose is still under debate by scholars. In the words of archeologist and Mystery Hill curator Robert Stone: “ others believe it was used for sacrifices, not only because of its central location, its size, but also because the Oracle speaking tube was beneath it, as well as the carved channel [for the draining of blood] on the top surface. It is positioned on four worked stone legs and is located at the center of the site in a large courtyard.”2

It too bears a striking resemblance to altar stones found at megalithic sites in Europe. And we do know that blood sacrifice and altars such as these were connected firmly to Neolithic religions. But even more than mere physical resemblance to European sites, it was carbon dating, carried out under the supervision of respected scientists from Geochron Laboratories in 1971 that supported the disputed claims of researchers who were being ridiculed for insisting that Mystery Hill was a site of extreme antiquity. Carbon tests conducted on charcoal found alongside a stone pick and a hammer stone unearthed at an excavation near one of the underground chambers reveal a date of 2,000 B.C. The artifacts were clearly related to Neolithic pieces of the same era in the British Isles and Iberia. The excavation pit carbon tested had been undisturbed before digging and layers of strata above were perfectly intact.

Unfortunately, many of the other structures at the site were carted away, vandalized or destroyed—yet what remains should be viewed as one of the most important historical sites in the Western Hemisphere. And Mystery Hill is not—by far—the only megalithic site in New England whose origins are somewhat clouded.

Megalithic constructions known as dolmens can be found all across new England, the western part of Europe and even into Syria and South Africa. Dolmen comes from the Breton word for stone table as the dolmens in many instances are three, four or five smaller boulders topped by an immense, flat-topped boulder than can weigh any where from several tons to 90 tons. Many of these capstones are however roundish, dressed stones, and not flat topped.

The dolmen usually was erected to commemorate the death of a chieftain or an historical event of great importance and scriptural incisions usually accompany the dolmen on stone markers. Some experts believe that the dolmen was actually a tomb that was then covered in huge amounts of earth—in effect a tumulous tomb in which the earth has been eroded away. Dolmens are frequently occurring structures in the American northeast. There are in fact over 200 examples of dolmens in New England alone and some very impressive examples can be found in our country as far away as California.

Another frequently occurring megalithic structure familiar to all readers is the stone circle. We know of the great Stonehenge complex in England with its huge stones found there and the many calendrical alignments they delineate. But there are ancient stone circles in New England as well.

Probably the most intriguing archaeological site in Connecticut is located in Groton and is called “Gungywamp,” thought to be an ancient Indian name, but actually ancient Gaelic meaning, “Church of the People.” Besides containing beehive chambers and petroglyphs, the Gungywamp site has a double circle of stones near its center, just north of two stone chambers. Two concentric circles of large quarried stones large slabs laid end to end—are at the center of the site. Extensive fire burning on some of the slabs is apparent which leads many to believe it was an ancient altar. Nearby there are several large pillar stones and one boulder slab that have been carefully positioned along astronomical site lines.

Visiting the Gungywamp site on the afternoon of September 21st, Dave Barron, the head of the Gungywamp Society, saw a sight that he would never forget. He said, “The setting sun had cast a beam of light through the vent shaft at the back of the chamber. This beam of light slowly moved down the east wall and spotlighted into the small beehive crypt near the entrance. This stone-lined tube was designed precisely to permit the Equinoctical sunset to fully penetrate the chamber’s dark interior on only two days during the year—March 22nd and September 21. The high density of garnet in the stones magnified the intensity of the sunlight entering the chamber. It certainly acts as a predictable calendar. The Gungywamp site has been carbon dated to 600 A.D.”3

James Whittall had this to say about an astonishing megalithic site he viewed at LeBlanc Park in Lowell, Massachusetts: “There I saw a sight I had not seen since my travels in the British Isles. Situated on a mound were weathered megalithic stones. I was filled with disbelief—it just couldn’t be—western Europe, yes, but here in Massachusetts—no. The reality of the scene was astonishing.”

This oval mound was measured at 112 feet long by 56 feet wide. And the stones, as Whittall predicted, provided astronomical alignments. The monoliths were oriented east to west, and bearings of the sight indicated that it had been used to observe solar events. The first observation was made on September 22nd, the fall equinox, from the highest stone on the western side from the peak of the eastern most stone. The sun set behind stone number four just as Whittall had surmised.

FOOTNOTES

1. Barry Fell, America, B.C.—Ancient Settlers In the New World. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 215.

2. Joanne Dondero Lambert, America’s Stonehenge—An Interpretive Guide. Kingston, New Hampshire, Sunrise Publications, 1996), p. 45.

3. Robert Ellis Cahill, New England’s Ancient Mysteries. (Salem, Massachusetts: Old Saltbox Publishing House, 1993), p. 41. 

New England’s Megalithic Mysteries

America’s Stonehenge (a.k.a. Mystery Hill) in North Salem, New Hampshire is one of the few places with stone chambers that are open to the public. Like England’s Stonehenge, There’s nothing like it. There are more stone chambers closely clustered together here than anywhere else in New England. In colonial times, this site was owned by Jonathan Pattee, a farmer who lived there from 1826 to 1848. Certainly at least some of the remains date from that time, but other parts may be a bit earlier.

The Sacrifice Stone. Some say this was the floor of a wine-type press, and the groove around the base gathered the juice. Behind this stone is an impressive “”shaped chamber. At the bottom of the , there is a eight inch wide hole that exits under the Sacrificial stone. Some, with a more jaundiced view, say it was used to speak through – a voice from the other side. It is actually very difficult to determine just how old and just who built this stone complex.

Over the years, a great deal of work has gone on at this site in an attempt to figure out who built it. As its older name, Mystery Hill, implies, it has been quite difficult to determine just who built what at this most unusual site.
There is an irregular ring of stones that go around the complex of stone structures. This one marks the Winter Solstice sunset notice the notch in the background.

This is one of the few chambered sites in New England that is open to the public, so while it is not typical of many of the other sites, it does seem to exhibit the characteristics of sacred space.

Other New England Chambers

There are chambers like the ones in Vermont throughout most of New England and the Hudson River Valley of New York state. Hut C in western Massachusetts. Notice the roots of the trees around the mouth of the chamber. These Tolkinesque root structures are found frequently with the Earth energies. Many chambers drop down to the floor which is below ground level.

This chamber is also in western Massachusetts. The red and white stick is for scale, and is a meter long. The flat land and fence in the background is a cemetery, but unlike the receiving vaults, this one clearly would not hold a body, so must have been used for something else.

This slab constructed chamber is in Putnam County New York (North of New York City) in the Hudson River Valley. All of chambers in this section have veins if primary underground water running underneath them.

This one is in New Hampshire. Colgate Gilbert has been active in NEARA (the New England Antiquities Research Association) for over thirty years. NEARA was one of the early organizations set up to investigate these lithic sites. It is still active today.

Gungywamp Swamp, Groton, Connecticut

Just behind the Groton naval yard is a unique collection of lithic material in a place called Gungywamp Swamp.

For those who have read The DaVinci Code some of this will be old hat. Hopefully, I am not just meandering uselessly here though and this basic information will be of interest.

The practice of geomancy can be defined as putting humans, their habitats and their activities into harmony with the visible and invisible world around us. This art was at one time universal, and vestiges of it remain in the landscapes, architecture, rituals and folklore of every people. The patterns and themes of geomancy are the archetypal patterns of heaven and earth, echoed in the subconscious mind of mankind. These patterns have always led us to seek “power points” on the earth – special places where the mind can expand into new levels of consciousness, see visions or speak prophecy, and work magic to ensure harmony of self and universe.

The intrinsic geometry which underlies all things is the basis for geomancy, and has found its most beautiful expression with the geomantic architectures which have been used though the ages to harmonise sacred sites with their purposes and positions on the earth. The pathways of geomantic power which link these sacred sites show up as alignments between them and have been variously called dragon paths, fairy roads and ley lines. Thus we have two elementary symbolic forms – the straight line and the spiral – to show alignments between geomantic points and the energy fields around the points themselves.

Geomancy is perhaps one of the two earliest forms of magic. The other, shamanism, deals with spirits, elementals and powers. Geomantic magic deals with the very substance of earth and heaven that enables these entities to exist. The geomancy of a site can therefore tell us much about the usage of a site. Its orientation against sunrise alignments, the geometry of the site and the numerology built into its structure, its alignments to other sacred places: all these can tell of a sites symbolic functions and will reflect the macrocosm in the microcosm of the site, the greater in the lesser.

It may be that early man, like modern dowsers and sensitives, was very much more sensitive to the energies of the earth than most people are today. As they moved on their nomadic ways, these people would have recognised certain places as having a direct magical relationship with aspects of the divine, be it the Earth Mother, the Sun god, or some other personification or concept. Later, when these nomads settled into an agricultural lifestyle, they would have concentrated on those sites in their own locality. This would have certainly led to the production of folklore concerning the sites and to a need to mark such places as special to that particular people.

Amongst the earliest sites of this kind were sacred springs where the stuff of life, enlivened by the earth energies, bubbled from the mother earth. There would also have been trees that by their placement and age showed the union of heaven and earth and so echoed the great World Tree which in many mythologies supports the universe. New trees would perhaps have been planted to replace ones that died, as has happened at Glastonbury where this too became the legend of a saint planting his staff, which blossomed into a tree. Each such place was seen as the dwelling place of a “genius loci” or “spirit of the place” which could be contacted by the shamans of the tribe for aid or wisdom. Examples of such sacred sites include the Yew at Fortingall and Merlin’s Oak in Caermarthen as well as the springs of Bath, sacred to the pigs of Cerridwen.
Rocky outcrops would also have drawn early man to them. Places like the tors of Cornwall or the volcanic stubs of lowland Scotland bear the marks of interest, from Stone Age carvings to modern graffiti. These places are those at which the earth powers can be perceived more clearly and are sites where shamans can conduct rites for visions or enlightenment. Interestingly, the Reverend Toplady wrote the Christian hymn, Rock of Ages, after being inspired during a trip to the massive rocks of Cheddar gorge, an ancient sacred place. Lower hills were often altered to enhance their geomantic powers and on occasion complete artificial hills were built at sufficiently auspicious places.

Many of these hills can still be discerned. The original symbology of such places was tied up with the image of the Sun God transfixing the earth dragon in place with a spear of light, thus making the dragon power available for use by his priesthood. In the Christian era, such legends became those of the dragon-slaying Saints, George and Michael. St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, the Church of St Michael at Glastonbury Tor and the cathedral of St. Michael atop an artificial mound at Linlithgow are all British examples and powerful sites in the network of dragon paths. Their famous French counterpart Mon Saint Michel, reputed to be the last vestige of the sunken land of Lyonesse, was named Dinsul, or the Mount of the Sun, up until 710 AD.

Mention should be made here of other stones of veneration, the smaller often unworked stones called as a group “baitylos” stones. These stones are usually of meteoric origin, showing the union of earth and sky spirits in a gift direct from the Gods. Many are set in high places to reinforce the symbology, like the Stone of Destiny in its original position atop the manmade Moot Hill at Scone or the Irish Lia Fail which is atop the hill of Tara at the geomantic fulcrum of Ulster. Others are set in temples, such as the Omphalos stone of the oracle at Delphi or the sacred Ka’aba which forms the centre point of the temple at Mecca, centre of the Muslim world
Other lesser examples abound and many Christian churches were placed over such stones or incorporated them into their structures. The symbols of the ancient religions were thus harnessed to lend their power and sanctity to the new religion – an act whose significance would not have been lost on the people of the time.

Next, as mankind became more organised and capable of major works of engineering, the sacred places became more formalised. Stone circles, megaliths or tombs were used to mark and further sanctify those spots where the earth currents were most strongly felt. Again, the key concept is often of a joining of earth and sky at a geomantic power spot. A common motif for this is to set up the stones in such a way as to record, fix and predict the movement of the Sun, moon or significant stars such as Cappella or the Plaeides. The latter, that group of stars known as the Seven Sisters, mirrors by its setting and rising the beginning and end of the British winter period. A second common motif was to set the stones up so that at a particular time a sunbeam could pierce through the tomb and illuminate a particular carved stone, as at Brugh na Boyne in Ireland

Accurate surveying was a very sophisticated science in ancient times. Caesar tells us that the Druids knew much about the stars and the movements of the constellations. The Greek geometer Erastosthenes used the lengths of shadows cast by vertical poles at known latitudes to calculate accurately the circumference of the earth. Using geometry and number – the most essential expressions of the very nature of the universe – the ancients mapped out sacred observatories whose every measurement and angle was significant. Many people know that Stonehenge is a solar and lunar calendar, but few realise the true geomantic complexity and splendour of the stones. Using as an axis the rising point of the sun at Summer Solstice sunrise, and marking this with an outlyer called the “heol” stone, the builders then mapped out a geometric figure of interlacing circles. The area where two circles intersect in such a system is called a “vesica piscis” and is one of the basic figures of sacred geometry. I will return to this later, but this system becomes, along with observations of the heavens, the plan for the placement of the stones of the complex.

· There are 19 bluestones – the number of years it takes the moon to return to the exact same position in the sky.
· There are 56 Aubrey holes – the number of years in the cycle of the moon’s eclipses.
· There are 5 sarsen arches – the pentagram.
· The entire system has a circumference of 370 megalithic yards – the perimeter sum of a square of the sun. (In geomantic convention a circle with a circumference the same as the sum of a magical square’s perimeter is identical with that square.)
· The bluestone circle has a diameter of 39.6 megalithic feet. This is the number of moon months in a solar year (13.2) times the 3 phases of the moon.

Perhaps the most peculiar thing about Stonehenge is that it could not be anywhere else. Only at it’s own exact latitude is the symmetry and layout possible. If it was a few miles north or south it would look entirely different. The entire system is a fusion of heaven and earth, of god and goddess, at a point of harmony between all things.

When the sun rises on Midsummer morning over the heol stone then its first rays pass through the centre of Stonehenge and provide an axis for the whole system. This is a fundamental image, preserved in the Christian system as St. Michael (or St. George) transfixing the earth dragon with his spear. It has been used countless times to create a geomantic sacred space where none necessarily existed. Many Pre-Reformation churches are aligned so that the main axis of the church aligns, not to the East, but rather to the point of sunrise on the horizon on the feast day of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. At Chatres cathedral, the premier church of France, a single pane of clear glass is set into the vast stained glass window above the high altar. On Midsummer morning a beam of light passes through this and strikes the centre of an ornate maze laid into the floor. The maze is often used by both pagan and Christian alike as a representation of the windings of the dragon-path. Like Stonehenge, many of these great churches are built to a plan incorporating sacred geometry and geomantic patterns. The hexagram, symbol of the cosmos mirrored in the sacred space, forms the plan for Templar round churches, Rosslyn Chapel and Glastonbury Abbey.

Wherever the geomant practised his art, certain mathematical figures and functions have been used as symbolic of the underlying harmonies of all things. The nine dot cross, the maze, the pentagram and hexagram, the vesica piscis and the Fibionacci Series recur again and again. Let us look at each in turn, and see why they are so potent as magical symbols.

Pirate treasure, in all children’s books, is marked on the map with a cross. The Cross, or Saltire, is a fundamental symbol in geomancy. Via an intermediate figure, the Fylfot, the saltire cross becomes the solar swastika which was reversed and perverted by the Nazis.
Nine is a prime number, the number of the Moon and hence the Goddess of mysteries, of the tides and of those more subtle tides of earth energy. It is also, in the nine dot pattern, the root of the labyrinth or maze, the fylfot or swastika, and the Celtic shield knot. All are symbols of the fixing by geomancy of a sacred place. The cross, surrounded by a circle, becomes the Celtic cross or the four cardinal directions bounded by the limits of the world. It is this esoteric knowledge that is the root of the common expression that “X marks the spot”.

Another common phrase, the notion of trying to “square the circle” also comes from geomancy. The construction of a hexagram requires an elementary application of geometry, beginning with a circle and then a square to finish with a perfect equilateral triangle. All without measuring, which means that such a figure is perfect at any size.

The hexagram is symbolic of the hermetic maxim that “as above, so below, but after a different manner”. Thus it is perfect as a geomantic figure where a sacred space is intended to mirror the larger universe outside. It is thus often used as the plan for churches and as the basis of magical circles.

The last three items on our list are the pentagram, the vesica piscis and the Fibionacci Series. These are all closely related as each embodies what the Greeks called the Golden Rule, a harmony of proportion that embodies beyond all other things the magical harmony of the universe.

The Fibionacci Series was first put in writing by that eminent 13h century Italian mathematician who’s name it bears. However, all indications are that it was a well hidden secret of magicians long before then. In essence, it is a simple numerical formula that says add two numbers in the a series together to get the next number. Thus the series is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144,233,377,610,987,1597 and so on.
All well and good but so what. Well, we know that this series governs such natural growths as the curls in a ram’s horn or the spirals of a snail’s shell, along with the placement of seeds in a sunflower head. The series is an expression of a ratio expressed in maths by the letter e. Divide the largest number by the second largest and you get 1.618034447822 which comprises the number e to the first 13 digits. Like pi, the Golden ratio is an endless number. Things that incorporate this ratio simply look “right” to the human eye. This ratio is what is magical in the pentagram, the only pure geometric figure which embodies the Golden Rule. The same is true of the vesica Piscis, the figure created at the intersection of two circles. The figure of Christ is often shown seated in a Vesica piscis, and the Christian symbol of the fish is another example of this geomantic figure being utilised symbolically.