Sometimes a split second is sufficient to change the course of your life, though sometimes even ages of efforts may not yield results. The former usually happens in case of visions and the discovery of the Ley Lines has a somewhat similar and interesting story.

The Vision of Alfred Watkins: Ley Lines

In the early 190s a 65-year-old English merchant and amateur archeologist, Alfred Watkins, was out riding in the hills in his native Herefordshire. He pulled up in order to view the familiar landscape, and suddenly saw it as he had never seen it before, criss –crossed by straight lines that intersected at churches and at points marked by ancient stones.

The feeling was strong enough to make him realize that it was a visionary experience and, as often happens with sudden revelations, it determined the course of the rest of his life’s work. He was convinced that he had seen in a flash the landscape of ancient Britain, a landscape covered with a vast network of straight tracks, many of them aligned either with the sun or with the path of a star. He called this network the “ley system.”

From Vision to Reality

Working on a special ordnance survey map, Watkins confirmed his vision. He found that straight lines extending many miles could be drawn to pass directly through churches, ancient sites, and man-made landmarks. It seems that for some reason not yet understood by us, but possibly for trade, straight roads were planned long before the Romans.

However, because many of these tracks pass through difficult countryside with no attempt to skirt lakes, bogs, or mountains, one is tempted to think there is a deeper significance to them than a system of trade routes. The routes are marked by man-made landmarks such as cairns built on mountain slopes or notches cut in ridges, and various ancient sites.

The Criticism

Watkins was ridiculed for his theory because the prevailing version of ancient history at that time was that prehistoric Britons were little more than painted savages. But he stuck to his view and amassed a great deal of evidence which he published in 1925 in The Old Straight Track. Gradually other antiquarians became convinced, and began to investigate too.

Guy Underwood Quest

One of these was Guy Underwood, another amateur archaeologist who learned dowsing, or water divining, in order to carry out his investigations. His research with his divining rod took him to old churches and ancient sites of tradition sanctity all over the country.

He found that at center of every circle of  stones, and at a key point in every church he examined, there was an underground source of energy. A number of water lines converged in a radiating pattern to this spot. He called the spot a “blind spring.” But he also found two other underground lines of force, not necessarily connected with the water line, which responded to the divining rod.

Aquastat

One of these lines, which he called an “aquastat,” seemed in some way to govern the layout of religious monuments and determine the positioning of stones, ditches, or buildings.

Track Line

The other, which he called a “track line,” deemed to govern the route of road and tracks. Underwood called all these subterranean lines of force “geodetic” lines. He believed that the main use early man had made of them was to mark out and divide the surface of the Earth.

His research led him to the conclusion that both prehistoric and medieval builders had placed sacred sites and aligned the buildings they erected on them in observance of geodetic laws. In other words, they knew of the existence of lines of force running through the earth and, in some way, they had attempted to harness them for beneficial ends. Incidentally, Underwood found that Watkins’ surface leys were often paralleled beneath the surface of the earth by a line of force.

Pattern of the Past

In his book the Pattern of the Past, published in 1969, Underwood writes “… the three geodetic lines, the water line, the aquastat, and the track line appear to have much in common:

• they appear to be generated within the Earth
• involve wave motion; to have great penetrative power; to from a network on the face of the Earth
• affect the germination and manner of growth of certain trees and plants
• be perceived and used by animals
• affect opposite sides of the animal body, and to form spiral patterns.

3 and 7 Numbers

From these observations he goes on to say that they seem to be controlled by mathematical laws that involve the number 3 in their construction and the number 7 in their spiral patterns. These two numbers have been accorded arcane meaning from the earliest times. Underwood sees theses geodetic lines as manifestations o an earth Force, an idea which was central to many ancients religions. Traces  of this belief can still be found throughout the world today.

The Ley Lines

Modern Development vs Ancient Beliefs

When the bustling, expansionist, industrialized civilization of Western Europe tried to carry its influence into China about a  century ago its pioneers suffered a great deal of frustration and exasperation. For example, a proposal to cut a railway tunnel through a hill would be met by a polite refusal from the Chinese authorities.

Their explanation would be that that particular rage of hills was a terrestrial dragon, and that to cut through its tail was forbidden. Proposed sites for factories were firmly rejected for reasons that seemed to Europeans equally superstitious and nonsensical.

They had not understood that in China there was an ancient and important belief in lines of  force, known as “dragon current,”  running all over the surface of the Earth. Before any building was erected, or any tree planted, an expert known as a geomancer had to be consulted as to how the current would be affected. The Chinese were amazed on their side that the technologically advanced Europeans had no conception of this venerable science.

Yin and Yang

As everything else in Chinese philosophy, the dragon current was divided into yin and yang. The yin, or female current, was supposed to flow along gentle undulating countryside, and the yang, or male force, through steep high peaks.

The most favorable position was felt to be where the two currents of yin and yang met. This was therefore often selected by a geomancer as a site for a tomb because the Chinese believed that the influences surrounding their dead ancestors played a decisive role in the future of their family.

Geomancers interpreted the earth in terms of the sky, rather like the principle of “as above, so below” that recurs so many times in ancient philosophy and magic. Mountains were thought of as stars, and large rivers as the Milky Way. Each dragon current had small tributaries or veins, and every small vein had its own astrological interpretation. Different parts of the Earth were thought to come under the influence of the different planets then known-Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn. These planets in turn had correspondences with colors, materials, landscape characteristics, animals’ parts of the body, and so on.