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When you read this the WDS Road Show will have been at the Crop Circle Conference in Marlborough, and at Chedworth Roman Villa.
We thought we were going to be at the Science Museum, on Sunday and Monday 27/28 August but this event has been cancelled unfortunately.
Before this burst of activity we had added some new titles to our book stock – all at below list price. There may be some left.
The July trip was held slightly earlier in the month than usual, as it was hosted by the Earth Energies Group – a sub-section of the British Society of Dowsers.
The weekend was originally meant to have been split into two parts, with Shaun Ogbourne leading the sacred sites part, while David Sanguine, of the EEG, led the crop circle part, doing some of both on each day. However, there were so few crop formations that it was decided to concentrate the whole of Saturday on sacred sites in the hope that at least one new formation would appear during the Saturday night. Very obligingly, one did!
Saturday morning was devoted to dowsing energies at Adam’s Grave, where the superb views helped to alleviate the disappointment of the crop-circle fans who usually have a lot more formations to see. The increasing heat meant that the plans for the afternoon session were changed to a more sheltered venue – West Wood. This proved to be an inspired decision, everyone found the “fairy mounds” and the unusually shaped long-barrow of interest, so we stayed there for the rest of the afternoon.
On the Sunday we went up to Barbary Castle to see the newly-formed crop circle from above. Some of the members of the party went down for a closer inspection, while the rest dowsed around the ancient hill-fort. Again, the seriously hot weather was the deciding factor for the afternoon session – old churches being pleasantly cool in the extreme temperatures. An interesting weekends dowsing, in spite of the scarcity of crop-circles!
The July meeting was a fairly informal session, with shot talks from Sib Cole, Shaun Ogbourne and an amusing anecdote from Geoff Woolford. Sib kicked off with a few vaguely dowsing related bits and pieces connected with the occasional “Dowsing in the Veg–patch.” articles which appear from time to time in the journal, and Shaun expanded upon various points that were raised in the talk.
Apologies from Sib for the rather disjointed talk. I mixed up the months and only remembered the day before that I was supposed to be doing it! Whoops!
Companion planting was dealt with first, with dowsing being suggested as a good way of checking the compatibility of the plants you wish to grow. It is believed that some plants exude substances from their roots which can have either an inhibiting effect on some plants in close proximity, but may have a beneficial effect on others.
One of the things that came up in the talks was the use of magnetised water when watering seedlings. It is supposed to improve the rate of germination. Work at the Bion Laboratory in Ljublijana in 1998 also found that using water that had been exposed to alternating electric fields could impair seedling growth. Sib suggested that appropriate magnet strength could be dowsed for Remember not to site water butts near mains electricity meters or power lines, as you don’t want to expose the water to alternating fields. If using tap water a magnet can be fitted to the water-pipe, but in a large cistern or butt, you could use a coated neodymium magnet, up to 10,000 gauss. Magnets can also be fitted to a hosepipe, the sort sold to prevent lime-scale build-up will do.
An American agricultural scientist at the University of Florida has a theory that the ancient round towers of Ireland were paramagnetic antennae intended to receive infra-red radiation from outer space, thus channelling magnetic energy to the earth to help plant growth. The towers are made of basalt, limestone and sandstone, which are all paramagnetic and therefore susceptible to magnetic fields and can store them.
Sib found this information while researching items for the talk, but had not known much about the towers, [nor did the audience], other than they were Irish, round and tall! This prompted Sib to do some homework, and more info appears elsewhere in the journal.
The advantages of using copper rather than iron tools were another topic for discussion. Minute traces of copper deposited in the soil by the tools during use is believed to benefit plants, giving increased yields, and slugs do not like copper. This can lead to reduced mollusc populations, also of benefit to the gardener.
Shaun then explained how the reasons for using copper to cultivate the soil had been formulated by an Austrian man by the name of Victor Schauberger who designed several tools and did extensive research into the way that iron in the soil can be detrimental for agriculture. Shaun also gave an overview of Schauberger’s work on energising water in storage, to emulate the natural action of water in rivers. Energised water is believed to be beneficial not only to plants but also to humans and animals.
Shaun also gave hints on re-directing harmful energy flow away from plants that were not thriving, while pointing out that some seem to like this type of energy. Again, dowsing can be used to check this.
Questions from the audience followed, after which we were all glad to get back out into the cool of the night!
Thanks to everyone who turned up on such a hot evening.
A company called Implementations is importing and selling copper alloy tools based on Schauberger’s ideas. Their web page is www.implementations.co.uk.
A useful book to read if you are thinking of trying magnetised water is called “The Book of Magnet Healing” and it is written by Roger Coghill. [Gaia Books Ltd.]
As mentioned above, until researching material for my bit of the July talk, I knew next to nothing about these towers, only what I had seen in an old TV programme, probably Time Team. Coincidentally, on the Monday evening, Shaun handed a book catalogue to me to have a look through. Believe it or not, when I got home and sat down to read the catalogue, right at the top of the first page I opened it at, was a book called “Irish Round Towers”.
Obviously I was meant to buy this book, so I can now summarise some of the information it gives.
The towers are the largest relics of the ancient Irish church and were always built as part of monastic sites. Some were as tall as 30 metres [100 Roman feet.], or more in spite of the smallness of the associated churches. There are many theories about them, but no-one really knows the full story.
They are first mentioned in AD950, when one was burned, so they must pre-date this event. All are slightly tapered and have stone and mortar conical caps, although some may originally have had flat roofs that were flimsy and were destroyed by storms. The four top windows were orientated to the four cardinal points of the compass. There were several floors, access being, it is believed, by way of ladders leading through holes in the floors, Although a few have entrances at ground level, most have the doors well above ground level and ladders would have had to be used.
The towers were normally sited at the western end of the monastery’s most important church, with their doors pointing at the church entrance, where monks may have displayed valuable relics and holy artefacts to pilgrims.
A number of exotic speculations have been voiced as to the purpose of the towers, including the suggestion that they are giant phalluses, the central spikes of giant sundials, semaphore stations, amplifiers of huge bells, earth-grid energisers, among others.
If anyone would like to read the interesting little book I got this info. from, it is published by Wooden Books and is written by Hector McDonnell.
Dennis Wheatley (the Society’s late president) passed away recently and we thought that reprinting some of his articles would be a fitting tribute; therefore we will be including them occasionally over the next few months.
Feng-shui is a discipline that originated in ancient China and its primary purpose was to provide landscapes that were harmonious for good living. In Feng-shui the earth's natural energy currents were important and were known as "the Dragon Lines". They were considered to be sacred and were integrated into dwelling places by geomancers. Where the Yang and Yin dragon lines crossed this location was regarded as especially sacred and would be reserved for temples, important dwellings, or an emperor's tomb. In the mid 1980s, Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst at the instigation of John Michell, the writer, went to Lands End where they detected a yang river of earth energy which they dubbed "Michael". They tracked it to the Sanctuary, near Avebury, where they found the yin current which they called "Mary". After this discovery they had to return to Lands End to track Mary to the Sanctuary.
Hamish said to me "I was stupid and should have realised that a yang energy would be balanced by a yin."
The twin earth currents coursed from Lands End to Hopton on the Norfolk coast and did a balancing act around the long-distance ley line discovered by John Michell in the 1960s. Along this great geomantic corridor the twin currents passed through over 300 stone circles, long barrows, medieval churches and abbeys. Averaging over one per mile suggested intent rather than chance sitings. Here was feng-shui across the country. What Miller and Broadhurst had discovered was the British Dragon lines. At Avebury, in particular, we witness feng-shui practised by the neolithic builders.
The Michael current passes through a tumulus on Windmill Hill then enters the henge passing through the Cove feature in the northern circle, the obelisk stone marker in the southern circle, then passes through the southern causewayed entrance and proceeds along the Kennet stone avenue. The Avenue stones mark Michael's exact width. Michael then proceeds to the Sanctuary's centre.
Mary enters the Avebury region passing the Wagon and Horses Inn, the Long Stones Adam and Eve, then crosses with Michael on Windmill Hill. She then sweeps around the countryside and passes through the Winterbourne Monkton church setting its axis and its width. The church is dedicated to St. Mary.
From here Mary arcs towards the Cove where she joins Michael and conjointly they run to the southern causewayed entrance. Here Mary parts from Michael and passes through Silbury Hill and the West Kennet long barrow. She then crosses with Michael at the Sanctuary.
This is intensive feng-shui in a single ritual landscape.
The medieval Masonic Brotherhood also practised feng - shui evidenced in numerous churches and abbeys. At Glastonbury Abbey, for example, Mary sets its axis and Mary crosses Michael at the High Altar, the most venerated location in the abbey.
First published in the WDS Newsletter in 1999
In November Hamish will be coming to speak to us about some of his more recent research.
In last month’s journal I wrote up some information on Oystermouth Castle, one of the sites visited on this year’s long weekend field-trip. As I mentioned, Roger, the curator who showed us around was very enthusiastic about dowsing and was most accommodating and helpful. Since then he has contacted Rob and Pat who helped set up the visit, to say how much he had enjoyed our group’s visit and that he had found our findings and observations very useful. He is trying to write up all of the “paranormal” aspects of the castle in addition to the historical facts, as so little investigation has been done there.
He has sent a couple of large charts showing plans of the castle and I thought it might be of use to him if any of the members who were present would mark up their findings on the plans, which I will take to the next meeting. I will then return the plans to him with the information.
Roger has also sent several reports from his dowsing mentor, John Harvey, describing his findings, where he has confirmed, or added to, material noted down by several psychics who have done work at the castle. As well as the usual type of dowsing, John has used the technique known as psychometry to “read” information from a number of “life-stones” which he had collected from the castle. There is quite a lot of information, far too much to list here, but I will take this to the meeting so that anyone interested can read it.
Apparently and almost unbelievably, no archaeological work has ever been done at the castle and they have only very limited funds, so any help we can give them will be greatly appreciated. S.C.
Another couple of urban legends for your amusement.
A man from Swansea, Wales, was shocked to discover his car had been broken into when he dropped into an off licence for a few minutes. His shocked turned to amusement when he discovered that the only thing taken was an opened wine bottle, which contained a sample he was about to drop off at the doctors. (Talk about taking the p----!)
And if that wasn’t bad enough, how about;
The New Zealand coast guard reported sighting a rare giant squid off the coast. Hundreds of fishermen and scientists went out to catch or photograph the creature.
Eventually one fisherman spotted the squid and netted it after a long chase. He was shocked however to hear the giant squid say “Get me out of this net”.
The squid was in fact a photographer who had made a giant squid suite in a bit to get closer to the real squid.