Ley line

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For other uses, see Ley Lines (disambiguation).
The Malvern Hills in England. Alfred Watkins believed a ley line passes along their ridge.

Ley lines /leɪ laɪnz/ are supposed alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords. The phrase was coined in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track. He sought to identify ancient trackways in the British landscape. Watkins later developed theories that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking by line-of-sight navigation during neolithic times, and had persisted in the landscape over millennia.[1]

In a book called The View Over Atlantis (1969), the writer John Michell revived the term "ley lines", associating it with spiritual and mystical theories about alignments of land forms, drawing on the Chinese concept of feng shui. He believed that a mystical network of ley lines existed across Britain.[2]

Since the publication of Michell's book, the spiritualised version of the concept has been adopted by other authors and applied to landscapes in many places around the world. Both versions of the theory have been criticised on the grounds that a random distribution of a sufficient number of points will inevitably create "alignments".

Alfred Watkins and The Old Straight Track

View on Snodhill Castle.

The concept of "ley lines" originates with Alfred Watkins, though Watkins also drew on earlier ideas about alignments, in particular the work of the English astronomer Norman Lockyer, who argued that ancient alignments might be oriented to sunrise and sunset at solstices.[3][4]

On 30 June 1921, Alfred Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire, and had been driving along a road near the village (which has now virtually disappeared). Attracted by the nearby archaeological investigation of a Roman camp, he stopped his car to compare the landscape on either side of the road with the marked features on his much used map. While gazing at the scene around him and consulting the map, he saw, in the words of his son, "like a chain of fairy lights" a series of straight alignments of various ancient features, such as standing stones, wayside crosses, causeways, hill forts, and ancient churches on mounds.[1] He realized immediately that the potential discovery had to be checked from higher ground when during a revelation he noticed that many of the footpaths there seemed to connect one hilltop to another in a straight line.

He subsequently coined the term "ley" at least partly because the lines passed through places whose names contained the syllable ley, stating that philologists defined the word (spelled also as lay, lea, lee, or leigh) differently, but had misinterpreted it.[5][6][7] He believed this was the ancient name for the trackways, preserved in the modern names. The ancient surveyors who supposedly made the lines were given the name "dodmen".[1][8] Watkins believed that, in ancient times, when Britain was far more densely forested, the country was criss-crossed by a network of straight-line travel routes, with prominent features of the landscape being used as navigation points. This observation was made public at a meeting of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford in September 1921.

His work referred to G. H. Piper's paper presented to the Woolhope Club in 1882, which noted that: "A line drawn from the Skirrid-fawr mountain northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and southern most point of Hatterall Hill, Oldcastle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill castles."[9] It has also been suggested that Watkins' speculation (he called it 'surmise')[1] stemmed from reading an account in September 1870 by William Henry Black given to the British Archaeological Association in Hereford titled Boundaries and Landmarks, in which he speculated that "Monuments exist marking grand geometrical lines which cover the whole of Western Europe".[10] He published his book Early British Trackways the following year, commenting "I knew nothing on June 30th last of what I now communicate, and had no theories".[11]

Examples of ley lines in Britain

Alfred Watkins theorised that St. Ann's Well in Worcestershire is the start of a ley line that passes along the ridge of the Malvern Hills through several springs including the Holy Well, Walms Well and St. Pewtress Well.[12]

In The Ley Hunter's Companion (1979) Paul Devereux theorised that a 10 mile alignment he called the "Malvern Ley" passed through St Ann's Well, the Wyche Cutting, a section of the Shire Ditch, Midsummer Hill, Whiteleaved Oak, Redmarley D'Abitot and Pauntley.[13]

In City of Revelation (1973) British author John Michell theorised that Whiteleaved Oak is the centre of a circular alignment he called the "Circle of Perpetual Choirs" and is equidistant from Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Goring-on-Thames and Llantwit Major. The theory was investigated by the British Society of Dowsers and used as background material by Phil Rickman in his novel The Remains of an Altar (2006).[14][15]

Perhaps relevant to the ley line argument is the existence of cursus, massive parallel imprints in the ground made by people between 3400 and 3000 BCE. Ranging in length from several hundred metres to well over a kilometre, their exact function remains unknown though they are commonly believed to have been used for ceremonial processions. Many of them do encompass Neolithic graves and monuments. However, while some cursus are relatively straight, others have curves and sharp turns. This may argue that ancient Britons had little interest in moving in straight lines over a landscape.[16]

Criticism

Watkins' work met with early scepticism from archaeologists, one of whom, O. G. S. Crawford, refused to accept advertisements for The Old Straight Track in the journal Antiquity.[17] Since 1989, refutations of Watkins' ideas have been generally based on mathematical methods such as statistics and Shape Analysis.

Chance alignments

80 4-point alignments of 137 random points

One criticism of Watkins' ley line theory states that given the high density of historic and prehistoric sites in Britain and other parts of Europe, finding straight lines that "connect" sites is trivial, and ascribable to coincidence. A statistical analysis of lines concluded that "the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere will 'clip' a number of sites." [18]

Shape analysis

A study by David George Kendall used the techniques of shape analysis to examine the triangles formed by standing stones to deduce if these were often arranged in straight lines. The shape of a triangle can be represented as a point on the sphere, and the distribution of all shapes can be thought of as a distribution over the sphere. The sample distribution from the standing stones was compared with the theoretical distribution to show that the occurrence of straight lines was no more than average.[19]

Archaeologist Richard Atkinson once demonstrated this by taking the positions of telephone boxes and pointing out the existence of "telephone box leys". This, he thus argued, showed that the mere existence of such lines in a set of points does not prove that the lines are deliberate artefacts, especially since it is known that telephone boxes were not laid out in any such manner or with any such intention.[20]

New Age endorsement

In 1969, the British author John Michell, who had previously written on the subject of UFOs, published The View Over Atlantis, in which he revived Watkins' ley line theories and linked them with the Chinese concept of feng shui.[2] The book, published by Sago Press, proved popular and was reprinted in Great Britain by Garnstone Press in 1972 and Abacus in 1973, and in the United States by Ballantine Books in 1972. Gary Lachman states that The View Over Atlantis "put Glastonbury on the countercultural map."[21] Ronald Hutton described it as "almost the founding document of the modern earth mysteries movement".[22]

Michell's mingling Watkins' amateur archaeology with Chinese spiritual concepts of land-forms led to many new theories about the alignments of monuments and natural landscape features. Writers made use of Watkins' terminology in service of concepts related to dowsing and New Age beliefs, including the ideas that ley lines have spiritual power [23] or resonate a special psychic or mystical energy.[24][25] Ascribing such characteristics to ley lines has led to the term being classified as pseudoscience.[26] New Age occultists claim ley lines are sources of power or energy. According to Robert T. Carroll, there is no evidence for this belief save the usual subjective certainty based on uncontrolled observations by untutored devotees. Nevertheless, advocates claim that the alleged energy may be related to magnetic fields. None of this has been scientifically verified.[27]

In 2004, John Bruno Hare wrote:

Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today".[28]

In popular culture

Ley lines appear in various works (both novels and short stories) of fantasy.

  • In Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar Series, numerous cultures access powerful streams of energy to produce magical powers.
  • In Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, set in the 18th century, the Mason-Dixon line becomes increasingly confused with the idea of a ley line and with feng shui.
  • In the Darkness series by Harry Turtledove, ley lines are used for transport by ships and trains that harness the planet's magical force and allow mages to cast more powerful magic.[29]
  • In the Vampire Diaries book series by L. J. Smith a large number of ley lines converge under the graveyard and the Old Wood of Fell's Church. The lines allow supernatural forces to become more powerful and also attract magic.[30]
  • Another author, Stephen R. Lawhead, made use of the concept of ley lines in his Bright Empires series. In the series ley lines are used to travel throughout various universes, thus connecting ley lines with string theory.
  • Ley lines are also used in The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney to explain how boggarts and other dark beasties get around.
  • In Michael Scott's The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series, ley lines are often referenced, especially in regards to where they intersect. These intersections are referred to as leygates, which allow for teleportation from one such location to another.
  • In Traci Harding's The Ancient Future trilogy, and subsequent books set in the same universe, Ley Lines are areas with a high concentration of spiritual energy, places where rituals and crossings over into the "Otherworld" are most easily performed.
  • The overarching plot of the sci-fi manga Outlaw Star involves the search for a mysterious location known as the Galactic Ley Line.
  • Jethro Tull's song "Cup Of Wonder" on their 1977 album Songs From The Wood includes several references to Ley line, with lines such as "Sung along the Old Straight Track" and "The old grey standing stones / That show the sun his way to bed"
  • In Palladium Games Rifts Role-playing system, ley lines erupt into storms and places where one or more cross can tear a rift or gateway to another dimension.
  • In Neal Stephenson's novel Reamde, ley lines are used as a mode of travel within the fictional MMORPG T'Rain.
  • In Cate Tiernan's Sweep series, ley lines are occasionally referenced as points where magickal power is concentrated, making them prime locations for spells/rituals. This is particularly relevant when more than one of the ley lines intersect at any given point.
  • In Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Lost Tower, the Ryūmyaku, a focal point of chakra beneath the city of Rouran, is referred to as a ley line in the English dub.
  • In the game Warriors Orochi 3, the death site of the game's antagonist, Hydra, is described as a ley line by Taigong Wang.
  • In the card game Magic: The Gathering, several cards are based and named after the concept. For exemple there's a Leyline of Vitality enchantment and a Leyline Phantom creature card.[31]
  • In the adventure video game Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, George Stobbart must track down the secret organization trying to claim the power lying dormant in the ley lines.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Watkins, Alfred Watkins (1925). The old straight track: its mounds, beacons, moats, sites, and mark stones. Methuen & Co Ltd. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Michell, John (1969). The View Over Atlantis. Sago Press. 
  3. ↑ Ruggles, Clive L. N. (2005). Ancient astronomy: an encyclopedia of cosmologies and myth. ABC-CLIO. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-85109-477-6. 
  4. ↑ Brown, Peter Lancaster (1976). Megaliths, Myths and Men: An Introduction to Astro-Archaeology. Blandford Press. p. 221. ISBN 0-7137-0784-4. 
  5. ↑ Brown, Peter Lancaster (1976). Megaliths, Myths and Men: An Introduction to Astro-Archaeology. Blandford Press. p. 222. ISBN 0-7137-0784-4. 
  6. ↑ Clive L. N. Ruggles, page 224.
  7. ↑ Watkins, Alfred (originally published 1922, this publication 2008). Ley Lines: Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps and Sites. Forgotten Books. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-60506-472-7. 
  8. ↑ Williamson, T. and Bellamy, L., Ley Lines in Question. World's Work Ltd. (1983) ISBN 0-437-19205-9 p.12
  9. ↑ Piper, G.H. (1888). Arthur's Stone, Dorstone. Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club 1881-82: 175-180.
  10. ↑ Pennick, Nigel; Devereux, Paul (1989). Lines on the landscape: leys and other linear enigmas. Hale. ISBN 978-0-7090-3704-0. 
  11. ↑ Alfred Watkins, Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps and Sites (1922).
  12. ↑ Watkins, A. 1921 Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps, and Sites.
  13. ↑ Devereux, P. Thomson, I. 1979 The ley hunter's companion: aligned ancient sites : a new study with field guide and maps Thames and Hudson ISBN 0-500-01208-3
  14. ↑ Michell, John (1973). City of Revelation: On the Proportions and Symbolic Numbers of the Cosmic Temple. Sphere. ISBN 0-349-12320-9. 
  15. ↑ Rickman, Phil (2006). The Remains of an Altar (Merrily Watkins Mystery). Quercus. ISBN 1-905204-51-5. Retrieved 8 April 2012. 
  16. ↑ Peter James and Nick Thorpe (November 1999) "Ancient Mysteries", p,316-9.
  17. ↑ Shoesmith, R. (1990). Alfred Watkins: a Herefordshire Man, p. 132. Woonton Almeley: Logaston Press. ISBN 0-9510242-7-2
  18. ↑ Johnson, Matthew (2nd Edition (29 Dec 2009)). Archaeological Theory: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4051-0015-1. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  19. ↑ "A Survey of the Statistical Theory of Shape", by David G. Kendall, Statistical Science, Vol. 4, No. 2 (May, 1989), pp. 87-99
  20. ↑ Clive L. N. Ruggles (2005). "Ley lines". Ancient astronomy: An encyclopaedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 225. ISBN 1-85109-477-6. 
  21. ↑ Lachman, Gary (2003). Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius. The Disinformation Company. p. 295. ISBN 978-0-9713942-3-0. Retrieved 19 June 2012. 
  22. ↑ Hill, Rosemary (2008). Stonehenge. Harvard University Press. p. 173. ISBN 9780674031326. Retrieved 19 June 2012. 
  23. ↑ Carroll, Robert P. (2003). The sceptic's dictionary: a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. p. 199. ISBN 0-471-27242-6. 
  24. ↑ Cowan, David (2003). Ley Lines and Earth Energies: An Extraordinary Journey into the Earth's Natural Energy System. Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 1-931882-15-0. 
  25. ↑ John P. Newport, The New Age Movement and The Biblical Worldview: Conflict and Dialogue, page 304 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998). ISBN 0-8028-4430-8
  26. ↑ Brian Regal, Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia, ISBN 978-0-313-35507-3
  27. ↑ "http://www.skepdic.com/leylines.html"
  28. ↑ "Early British Trackways Index". Sacred-texts.com. 2004-06-17. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  29. ↑ Turtledove, Harry (1999). Into the Darkness. New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. ISBN 0-8125-7472-9. 
  30. ↑ Smith, Lisa Jane. The Return Nightfall. Harper Collins. 
  31. ↑ The Gatherer, cards with the word Leyline in their name

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