Ley Line Research

There has been much debate on the existence of Ley lines and what they have been used for. In this report I will try to
look at a few.

The Oxford English dictionary quotes the word Ley - a field temporarily under grass [middle English]Ley line – a
hypothetical straight line connecting prehistoric sites etc (variant of lea) Lea – a meadow or field [old English]

Alfred Watkins (1855-1935), a locally well-known and respected Herefordshire businessman, 're-discovered' Ley Lines
on 30 June 1921, whilst looking at a map for features of interest noticed a straight line that passed over hill tops through
various points of interest, all of which were ancient. The sites mentioned include Stone Circles, Standing Stones, Long
Barrows, Cairns, Burial Mounds and Churches. At the time of his discovery, Watkins had no theory about alignments but
on that June afternoon saw "in a flash" a whole pattern of lines stretching across the landscape. He set about noting and
measuring these sites to help support his theory. His first book entitled, "Early British Trackways" was published in 1922
and was the result of a lecture he had given the previous year. Four years later, in 1925, he described his vision in a
book he titled The Old Straight Track:

"Imagine a fairy chain stretched from mountain peak to mountain peak, as far as the eye could reach, and paid out until it
reached the 'high places' of the earth at a number of ridges, banks, and knowls. Then visualise a mound, circular
earthwork, or clump of trees, planted on these high points, and in low points in the valley other mounds ringed around
with water to be seen from a distance. Then great standing stones brought to mark the way at intervals, and on a bank
leading up to a mountain ridge or down to a ford the track cut deep so as to form a guiding notch on the skyline as you
come up.... Here and there, at two ends of the way, a beacon fire used to lay out the track. With ponds dug on the line, or
streams banked up into 'flashes' to form reflecting points on the beacon track so that it might be checked when at least
once a year the beacon was fired on the traditional day. All these works exactly on the sighting line."

He summarised these straight tracks or “ley lines” as he called them were the remnants of prehistoric
trading routes. He went on to associate ley lines with the Greek god Hermes (the Roman Mercury, the Norse Woden)
who was the god of communication and of boundaries, the winged messenger, and the guide to travellers on unknown
paths. Watkins identified Hermes-Mercury with the chief god of the Druids and argued that:

"A Celtic god, Tout, or in its Romanised form Toutates, is supposed to be what Caesar referred to, and this name has
been found on a Romano-British altar. It is a fact that sighting mounds called Tot, Toot, Tout, Tute and Twt abound all
over the Kingdom and the root is probably Celtic... The fact that such mounds are mark-points on trackways strengthens
the link..."

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The identification of leys as ancient traders' routes was as far as Watkins was prepared to go, despite the fact that
numerous ley lines travelled up prohibitively steep hillsides. Although he also believed that the image of the actual ley
surveyors/designers can be seen by looking at the chalk figure known as "The Long Man of Wilmington," located in
Sussex. Speculation as to their meaning and purpose continued after Watkins' death in 1935.

Watkins later books were "The Ley Hunters Manual" (1927) and the "Archaic Tracks Around Cambridge" (1932). Shortly
after the publishing of the Old Straight Track, The Straight Track Postal Portfolio club was formed enable people to
exchange and circulate information, including viewpoints and photographs, with each other. Major F.C. Taylor in the
1930's was the secretary, but the deaths of Alfred Watkins and Major Taylor and the advent of the Second World War
meant that the club closed. Luckily a handful of people kept the interest alive right through to the 1960's when a new
cycle of theories emerged.

However, some time before Watkins, William Henry Black gave a talk titled Boundaries and Landmarks to the British
Archaeologicial Association in Hereford in September 1870. Here he speculated that "Monuments exist marking grand
geometrical lines which cover the whole of Western Europe". It is possible that Watkins' experience stemmed from some
half-recollected memories of an account of that presentation.

Paul Devereux believed it was the occultist Dion Fortune in her 1936 novel The Goat-Foot God (republished in 1971 by
S. Weiser, New York, and in 1989 by Aquarian Press, Northamptonshire) who invented the idea that ley lines were "lines
of power" linking prehistoric sites. A few years later, it was suggested that ley lines followed lines of cosmic energy in the
Earth and could be detected using dowsing rods. In the 1960s, ley lines, or "leys" as they were now called, became
linked with UFO sightings.

In 1969, ley lines were taken up by, John Michell, in his seminal book The View Over Atlantis, who discussed them within
the context of geomancy. By 1974, ley lines and geomancy, plus other esoteric subjects having to do with the Earth,
were collected under the umbrella term of "Earth Mysteries."

In 1974, Maria Reiche, a German expert, linked Watson’s theory of the chalk figure of "The Long Man of
Wilmington," and others of the same design in the Southern parts of Britain to the markings on the pampa/ground close
to Nasca, Peru.

Chuck Pettis and The Geo Group believe that the ley-line system exists as an independent circuitry with the capacity to
affect consciousness. And say that Ley lines are part of the Earth's energy system. Therefore, the building of monuments
served to reveal or mark the network, making the sites more special by connecting and networking them together. They
“akin” the word ley to leoht (light illumination) and Middle English lea meaning "pasture land, a meadow
which is open to the sun and therefore, at times, drenched with light." They believe the connection between ley and light
are significant on several levels. Physically, the clearing of tracks through the forest lights the way and marks the "ley of
the land."

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The quote the word ley as related to ley, lee and lay. They describe this as an etymological sequence, “a sort of
cosmic roadway system upon which people travelled in pre-Renaissance times”. First, lines were delineated by
cleared hilltop notches (ley), then woodland through which the ley line passed was cleared (lay), and then the fields,
which domesticated the landscape were cleared (lee) with the names ley, lay, and lee applying to each stage of ley
landscape development.

They ask you to visualize mounded tree groves on ley lines and a grove of trees on the ley lightway, filled with sacred
cosmic light. Imagine standing on a hilltop at dusk, seeing an aura of lighted lines passing through earthworks and stone
circles, with darkened groves of trees glowing with soft light. A magical mystery tour!

They go on to say that Ley lines and light are very closely related. Ley lines are cosmic forces originating outside of the
Earth. They penetrate and leave the Earth vertically at nodes. The penetrating nodes are called power centres. When the
ley lines enter they continue to a point 265 feet below the surface of the Earth. At this point, it makes a 90 degree right-
angle turn and travels in a perfectly straight line as seen from a "birds-eye view" and in an undulating motion as seen
from the side, but always maintaining a depth of 265 feet, relative to the surface of the Earth.

They state that the average length of a ley line is twenty to thirty miles long, although the length can vary from only a few
feet to thousands of miles. The width of the line varies, but the average is 5-1/2 feet, the width of the Roman road. They
go on to state that a horizontally travelling ley line exits the Earth by again turning 90 degrees and passing straight
through the centre of the Earth and coming out the other side.

In their description of what a ley line feels like they say that a vertical field extends up from the line and the nature of this
field is yang or energetic. And that if a person sits or lies over a ley line for an extended time will tend to become
hyperactive. This can work to advantage in healing or in situations where extra energy is useful, but if someone is
already very energetic, the ley line may cause an unhealthy situation. And if the ley line is negative, the negative aspects
of extra energy will be manifest in tension, anxiety, and neurosis.

They state that at every point where ley lines enter the Earth (inshoots) and at approximately 70% of the nodes where ley
lines leave the Earth (outshoots), there is a water spring. And that the ley-line inshoot or outshoot and accompanying
water spring are the universal prerequisites for power centres. And it is the union of the two that determines the site
selection of monuments, by creating a holistic field, which is greater than either of the two energies taken separately.

The power centre radiates a universal energy that affects consciousness and can also be influenced and changed by
consciousness. In fact, as silt becomes sedimentary rock over time, strong human emotions experienced over time at a
power centre create layers of consciousness that future visitors can feel and experience.

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The new age approach
Two British dowsers, Captain Robert Boothby and Reginald Smith of the British Museum, have linked the appearance of
ley lines with underground streams and magnetic currents. Underwood conducted various investigations and claimed
that crossings of 'negative' water lines and positive aquastats explain why certain sites were chosen as holy. He found so
many of these 'double lines' on sacred sites that he named them 'holy lines.'

By the 1960’s, the ideas of a landscape crossed with straight lines had become conflated with ideas from various
geomantic traditions; mapping ley lines, according to New Age geomancers, can foster "harmony with the Earth" or
reveal pre-historic trade routes, John Mitchell’s writing can be seen as an example of this. He has referred to the
whole face of China being heavily landscaped in accordance with the laws of Feng Shui. Michell has claimed that
Neolithic peoples recognised that the harmony of society depended on the harmony of the earth force. And so in China,
ancient Greese and Scotland, men built their temples where the forces of the earth were most powerful.

Some writers, widely regarded as pseudoscientific, have claimed that the ley lines and their intersection points resonate
a special psychic or magical energy. These theories often include elements such as geomancy, dowsing or UFOs. Some
similar believe these points on lines have electrical or magnetic forces associated with them.

A Scientific approach
According to data obtained by investigators of ley line theories, some points along the lines possess higher magnetic
energy than the average geomagnetic intensity. This data has been published in "Places of power" (Paul Devereux;
Blandford Press, 1990) and "Lodestone Compass: Chinese or Olmec Primacy?" (John B. Carlson; Science, 1975).

Theories of magnetic interaction at ley line points suggest to some observers that these points were used to induct
energy. Some geomantic researchers have investigated this phenomenon by studying telluric currents, geomagnetism,
and the Schumann resonance (among other physical phenomina). Current data is inconclusive.

A sceptical approach
Some skeptics have suggested that ley lines do not exist, and are a product of human fancy. One suggestion is that,
given the high density of historic and prehistoric sites in Britain and other parts of Europe, finding straight lines that
"connect" sites (usually selected to make them "fit") is trivial, and may be easily ascribed to coincidence. Regarding the
trade-route theories, skeptics point out that straight lines do not make ideal roads in all circumstances, particularly where
they ignore topography and require users to march up and down hills or mountains, or to cross rivers at points where
there is no portage or bridge.

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Conclusion
There are many other theories not looked at in this report and it contains only snippets of the original reports. The
question remains, are ley lines “remnants of “prehistoric trading routes”, “lines of cosmic
energy”, “geometrical lines”, “independent circuitry”, “holy lines”,
magical lines? Only the reader can descide what they believe.

From the paranormal investigative standpoint, it would be prudent to note all EMF anomalies, and map where they occur,
should the fluctuations occur in a straight line which is only a few feet wide, then research ought to be conducted as to
the possibility of the result being caused by ley lines. Whilst investigating places of worship, such as Alvecote Priory,
research needs to consider that the ley line could be wider than expected, but again, it would need to be confirmed that
the site is located on a ley line.

The following websites will prove useful to anyone wishing to look into this topic further
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMLeyLines.html
http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/leylines.htm
http://www.geo.org/dowse1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line

Hazel

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