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The Magic Land
by
Martin Gray
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Articles by Martin Gray
Reprinted with permission. © Copyright Martin Gray
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under
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The Magic Land: Pilgrimage in Ancient Europe
Megalithic and Celtic Sacred Space
by Martin Gray
Stonehenge Stone Circle, England
Early in the spring of 1986 I began a yearlong pilgrimage around Europe
by bicycle. Over the four seasons I cycled through eleven countries to
visit, study and photograph more than 100 holy places. These travels took
me to pilgrimage sites of medieval and contemporary Christianity and also
to the more ancient sacred places of the Megalithic, Greek and Celtic
cultures. For many thousands of years our ancestors have been visiting and
venerating the power places of Europe. One culture after another has often
frequented the same power sites and the story of how these magical places
were discovered and used is filled with fairies and nature spirits, sages
and astronomers, and enigmatic myths of world destroying cataclysms.
The tale begins millennia before the time of written histories in that
period scientists call the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Enormous glaciers
covered vast regions of northern and central Europe and, given the extreme
northern cold, most early Europeans lived further south, adjacent to the
Mediterranean Sea and the Iberian and Italian peninsulas. The levels of
the world’s oceans were much lower during the glacier age (because of all
the water frozen up in the polar ice caps) and Mediterranean coastlines
were far different than they appear on today’s maps. Between 13,000 and
8000 BC, the great ice caps rapidly melted and the levels of the world
oceans rose by 120 meters. Geologists calculate that the rising seas
swallowed 5 percent of the earth’s surface or an area of ten million
square miles, equaling the combined area of the United States and South
America.
The effect of this climate warming, glacial melting and sea level rise
on archaic European life was extraordinary and marks the beginning of the
Neolithic or New Stone Age. As the waters rose in the Mediterranean all
human settlements along the coasts were inundated and the people were
forced to move inland to higher ground. As the glaciers receded, lichens,
grasses, shrubs and trees colonized the previously ice-covered lands and
enormous herds of animals swept northward to forage among the fertile
plains and forests. Displaced from their former coastal settlements, the
early Neolithic hunter/gatherer peoples followed the animal herds,
wandering north in search of new lands. For three thousand years humans
wandered freely, living nowhere but exploring everywhere.
Anthropologists and archaeologists study the locations where ancient
people first began living in communities and theorize why these particular
places were chosen as settlement sites. Conventional theories assume that
sites were selected for agricultural, commercial or military purposes.
While such explanations are plausible in many cases, they are not
sufficient to explain the location of all early settlement sites.
Extensive archaeological evidence indicates that many of humankind’s
earliest communal settlements had religious and scientific orientations
and were chosen for those purposes with great care and precision. To
understand this phenomenon, we must examine a relatively unknown
characteristic of prehistoric people, which is their sensitivity to and
knowledge of the energies of the living earth.
During their movements across the lands, the Neolithic nomads
discovered places of spirit in the form of caves, springs, hills and
mountains. They also sensed lines of subtle energy crossing the land and
specific points of more concentrated forces along those lines. These
places of power were often marked with large cairns of stones. Identified
and marked in this way, they could be seen from a distance even if their
energetic qualities were too distant to be physically sensed. Over the
thousands of years that early Neolithic peoples wandered across central
and northern Europe hundreds of these planetary power points were
discovered and physically marked. Legends of these fabled sites were woven
into cosmogenic myths from the Mediterranean to the Artic Seas.
Following the early Neolithic nomadic period came the extraordinary
innovations of plant domestication and animal husbandry. No longer was it
necessary for people to wander the countryside in search of their food,
now they could grow crops and rear livestock in a fixed place of their
choice. The question is where did these early people choose to first
settle? At this stage in Europe’s prehistory (6500-4000 BC) the population
was very small. There were no civilizations to feed necessitating cities
near rich agricultural lands, no commercial activities requiring access to
trade centers, and no requirements for strategic positions to hold off
invading armies. There were simply not enough people for these things. Not
having such settlement location requirements, what then were the primary
factors influencing early peoples’ choices for permanent dwelling sites?
The first people making the transition from the hunter/gatherer
existence to a more settled life were the direct descendants of the
nomadic wanderers who had discovered and marked the locations of the
terrestrial power places. In searching for a settlement location, a
previously nomadic family or group of families would often choose a place
that held mythic significance for their ancestors, a place of spirit and
power. These groups of families would grow into larger groups and then
into clusters of groups, thus leading to the development of the earliest
villages and towns. As these social centers developed around the ancient
nomads’ sacred sites, the physical structures marking the precise power
point locations would be rebuilt and enlarged. Over many thousands of
years these power places would serve as the pilgrimage locations of
Megalithic, Celtic, Greek, and Christian cultures.
In addition to this explanation for the discovery, settlement, and use
of power places by Neolithic people there is another - and highly
controversial - explanation for the discovery and use of certain power
places in ancient Europe. To explore this matter we must first comment on
the enigmatic writings of the 4th century BC Greek philosopher Plato. In
the Timaeus dialogues, these being a record of discussions between
a Greek statesman and an Egyptian priest, Plato reports the following:
You Greeks are all children…. you have no belief rooted in
the old tradition and no knowledge hoary with age. And the reason is
this. There have been and will be many different calamities to destroy
mankind, the greatest of them by fire and water, lesser ones by
countless other means….You remember only one deluge, though there have
been many.
In his dialogues, Critias and Timaeus, Plato speaks of a
large island empire situated in the middle Atlantic, the legendary
Atlantis, which is said to have sunk beneath the waters following a
geological cataclysm around 9600 BC. Until recently, the notion of a
sunken continent was considered preposterous but recent geological and
oceanographic studies have begun to alter that view. The science of
inundation mapping has conclusively shown that large landmasses did indeed
exist in the Atlantic before being covered by rising oceans at the end of
the ice age. Could these lands have been the Atlantis of the ancient
myths? Additionally, evidence is accumulating to prove that a
planet-spanning cataclysm occurred in 9600 BC, which caused massive and
rapid shifting of the earth’s surface, devastating volcanic activity,
mega-tsunami waves, and subsidence of regional landmasses (all events
spoken of in the Atlantis myths). Termed
crustal
displacement by its primary theorist, Charles Hapgood, the phenomena
was also studied by Einstein who reported, “One can hardly doubt that
significant shifts of the earth’s crusts have taken place repeatedly and
within a short time.”
According to the Egyptian priests that Plato’s informant had spoken
with, Atlantis was a prosperous and sophisticated civilization, advanced
in science, and in possession of knowledge concerning the geography of the
entire earth. Legends tell of sages upon Atlantis who knew of grand
astronomical cycles, the existence of past cataclysms and the likelihood
of future ones. In anticipation of a coming cataclysm (the crustal
displacement of 9600 BC) and the catastrophic effect it would have upon
the island of Atlantis, these sages journeyed to specific geomantic
locations around the planet, where they built temples that contained
wisdom teachings and also information about the past and future
cataclysms. Geomancy may be defined as the location and mapping of power
places and accumulating evidence indicates that this archaic science had
mapped a planet-spanning grid of terrestrial power points positioned with
astonishing geometric regularity.
From the preceding discussion it is apparent that there are two
possible explanations for the original discovery of the power places of
Europe: the early Neolithic nomads and the astronomer sages of the
mysterious culture of Atlantis. The sites found and marked by these
extremely ancient people continued to be used for thousands of years and
became in time the sacred sites and pilgrimage places of other cultures
such as the Megalithic and Celtic. Myths originating from these cultural
epochs speak of the power places as being the abodes of deities, the
haunts of magical beings, and the enchanted domains of elemental spirits.
The pilgrimage traditions of the Megalithic and Celtic cultures are
markedly different in external form but in essence each may by understood
as an expression of early peoples’ connection to and worship of the living
earth.
The megalithic (meaning ‘great stone’) culture, which is responsible
for the stone rings and chambered mounds of Europe, existed from roughly
5000 to 1500 BC. Absolutely no written records exist from these times and
therefore archaeologists make assumptions about the people based on
excavations of their domestic, funerary, astronomical and ceremonial
structures. Among a wide variety of these forms, we may distinguish four
major types of stone structures with astronomical and ceremonial
functions: single or grouped standing stones known as menhirs; rock
chambers known as dolmens; enormous earthen mounds with passage ways
leading to rock cut chambers; and the stunningly beautiful stone rings of
which Stonehenge is the most famous example.
The menhirs are quite mysterious, often being located in extremely
remote regions and unassociated with any other landscape artifacts.
Scholars suggest that they may have been part of a vast sacred geography,
long since ruined, while dowsers and sensitives report that the solitary
standing stones are situated to mark points of concentrated earth energies
and the lines between these sites (sometimes called ley lines). Dolmens,
meaning ‘table stones’ consist of two to four enormous slabs of stone
(often weighing several tons each) supporting even larger roof stones.
Orthodox archaeologists are unsure of the purpose of these structures.
However, so called ‘alternative’ and more open minded scholars have
suggested that the structures, which were originally covered with
alternating layers of organic and inorganic materials (similar to the
orgone generators of Wilhelm Reich), may have been used to gather,
concentrate and radiate the energies of the earth for the therapeutic,
spiritual and oracular benefit of local people. The great chambered
mounds, such as Newgrange in Ireland, are the most massive of the
megalithic constructions and are oriented to be precisely aligned with key
periods in solar (equinox and solstice dates), lunar and stellar cycles.
Orthodox archaeologists commonly assume these structures were used for
funerary purposes because burials have been found in a small number of
them. It is important to note, however, that the scientific dating of the
burial remains shows them to be hundreds or thousands of years more recent
that the structures themselves, thus casting serious doubt on the tomb
theory.
Stone ring of Avebury, England
The most well known of the Megalithic structures are certainly the
stone rings, such as
Stonehenge and Avebury in England. Research conducted over the past
thirty years, combining insights from archaeoastronomy, mythology and
geophysical energy monitoring, has conclusively demonstrated that the
stone rings functioned as both ceremonial centers and astronomical
observation devices. Simply stated, many of the stone rings are situated
at locations with measurable geophysical anomalies (so called ‘earth
energies’); these earth energies seem to fluctuate in radiant intensity
according to the cyclic influences of different celestial bodies
(primarily the sun and moon but also the planets and stars); the
architecture of the stone rings was engineered to observationally
determine those particular periods of increased energetic potency at the
sites; and those periods were then used by people for a variety of
therapeutic, spiritual and oracular purposes. The tradition of pilgrimage
in megalithic times thereby consisted of people traveling long distances
to visit sites known to have specific powers. Due to the absence of
historical documentation from the megalithic age it is often assumed that
we cannot know how different power places were used but this is a narrow
view based solely on the mechanistic rationality of modern science. An
enlargement of view to include an analysis of mythology will reveal that
the legends and myths of sacred sites are in fact metaphors indicating the
magical powers of the places. The stories of the sacred sites and of their
deities and spirits will tell you how the places may influence you.
Thousands of years after the decline of megalithic culture came the
Celtic age. Contrary to popular belief and the historically inaccurate
writings of various new-age novelists, the Celts (and in England, their
Druidic priests) neither used the stone temples of the earlier megalithic
peoples nor continued their style of ceremonial architecture. Stonehenge,
for example, was constructed between 2800 and 2000 BC, while the Celts did
not enter England until 600 BC, fully 1400 years later. Abandoning the
stone rings and chambered mounds, Celtic spirituality was instead
concentrated at unadorned natural sites such as mineral springs and
waterfalls, caverns and remote islands, curiously shaped peaks and forest
groves. In Celtic spirituality the entire landscape was in fact filled
with places where spirit was present. This spirit of place or anima loci
was understood to be the essential personality of a location and the
spirit places were transformed into sacred sites when humans discovered
and acknowledged them.
As with the Megalithic people before them, the Celts believed different
types of landscape forms were inhabited or guarded by specific deities.
Sacred forest groves, called nemetoi, meaning ‘clearings open to the sky’
were dedicated to various goddesses such as Andraste, Belesama and
Arnemetia. Mountains served as altars for deities, sites of divine power
and places for seeking inspiration. Towering peaks were seen as abodes of
masculine deities such as Daghda, the father god, and Poeninus, while
various hills, the breasts of the goddess, were recognized to be the
sanctuaries of Ana, the Celtic mother of the Gods, and Brigid. Caves,
believed to be entrances to the underworld or the fairy kingdom, were used
for seeking visions and for communication with the depths of the psychic
unconscious. Strangely shaped trees and rocks were considered the resting
places of elemental spirits, fairies and supernatural beings. Celtic
people made pilgrimages to all these types of sacred places, leaving
offerings of cloth, amulets and food for the resident deities, thereby
seeking the archetypal spiritual qualities of the places and praying for
both physical and psychic healing.
Through countless years and cultural expressions people have made
pilgrimages across Europe, drawn by the spiritual magnetism of the power
places. Different religions and their assorted temples have risen and
disappeared yet the power places remain ever strong. Still beckoning
pilgrims in our own deeply troubled times, these holy sites offer a
plentitude of gifts for body, mind and spirit. Inspiration, health, wisdom
and peace - these and other qualities are freely and abundantly given by
the enchanted earth.
Anthropologist and photographer Martin Gray specializes in
the study of sacred sites and power places around the world, having
visited more than 1000 of these magical sites in 80 countries. Each year
he also guides group pilgrimages to different countries and this year is
offering magical journeys to Peru/Bolivia in June and Greece in October.
For more information, see Martin’s web site at
www.sacredsites.com.
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Other articles by Martin Gray available on our web site:
Selected Bibliography
BOOKS by Martin Gray
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Printed and bound
copies of the Places
of Peace and Power
manuscript are now available for $20 (plus $4 shipping
in the US, $6 International).
The 120 page manuscript includes the Introduction, three
textual chapters and a bibliography, (but no photos).
To order copies, send a check to: Martin Gray PO 4111,
Sedona, AZ, 86340
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Visit Martin's Web Sites
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PLACES OF
PEACE AND POWER - The Sacred Site Pilgrimage of Martin Gray
This web site discusses Martin's pilgrimage journeys, features
many of his photographs and writings, lists calendar details of
upcoming slide shows, gives information regarding book and
photograph orders, and has links to related sites.
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Magic Planet
Magic Planet Productions is the on-line art print store for
Martin Gray’s extraordinary photographs of sacred sites around
the world. The photographs featured on this web site were
created during a twenty year period when Martin traveled as a
pilgrim, visiting and studying more than 1000 holy places in 80
countries. Martin is an expert in the scholarly study of the
anthropology and mythology of pilgrimage, archaeoastronomy,
sacred geometry and esoteric earth mysteries. These sacred site
images reflect Martin’s knowledge as well as his profound love
of the living earth.
Martin Gray is an anthropologist and photographer specializing in the
study of sacred sites and pilgrimage traditions around the world.
Traveling as a pilgrim, Martin spent twenty years, visiting and
photographing over 1000 sacred sites in eighty countries.
Contact Martin Gray
If you wish to be on my Sacred Sites email list and
receive a newsletter 2-3 times a year, send an email to me with the word
subscribe in the subject box.
Email: martin@sacredsites.com
Postal mail address:
Martin Gray
PO 4111
Sedona, Arizona
86340 USA
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