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"MOVING MENHIRS", by geoff simmons, July 2008.  Intro. Note: menhir - megalith, prehistoric standing stone. I'm going to tie it all together here. First, I need to remind you about various features of the other pages - the background research: 'Lady and Goat' discusses two pentagrams. They figure here. They provide complementary, mirroring opposites - and mirrors are very much the thematic base of this entire enquiry - see 'Jesus and John' (74 and 47), 'Tarot II' et al. Then there's 'Perpetual Choirs'. Whilst this page pretty much rubbishes an idea aired (in various/varying formats) by John Michell, his idea of 10 (CPC/Circle of Perpetual Choirs) vertex sites also figures here. I freely acknowledge John's CPC idea as the start of (and inspiration for!) my own endeavour, this with my thanks. The two models, Lady/Goat and CPC, fit together; they're just 2 different ways of looking at the same idea. But it has to be in 2-D environment - like an OS map. And that's the first thing: Earth ain't flat but OS maps are ... so you can 'do' things in a 2-D mapped environment that apply to that 2-D environment but not to a 3-D reality, like parts of a planet, say. We are constrained to maps if we wish to employ plane (2-D) geometry. It's just bad maths to look for 2-D geometry on a 3-D landscape otherwise, unless the scale is smaller (in current convention) than about 30 miles. So much, then, for Robin Heath's MEASURE OF ALBION 5-12-13, Stonehenge-Lundy -Preselis, right-angled triangle? This is Robin's, nonetheless, interesting idea, the book being co-authored with John Michell:  I carry the illustration, bearing in mind the caveat expressed above, because Heath's "Preseli Site" is within 400 metres of a significant site my model finds whilst both schema, his and mine, also incorporate Stonehenge and Lundy: his"Preseli Lunation Triangle", as above, and the original Michell CPC idea I based my own enquiry upon. More on this below. Next, we need to consider St John and REVELATION. A river runs through it. I suggest we consider a model that utilises the Severn. REVELATION'S river is supposed to have a relationship of sorts with a red dragon ... Wales? And we find Point St. John at Lat. 3113' (51 53) on the Welsh Coast. 3, 11, 13 and 33 are supposed to signify in Freemasonry. 51 and 53 will pretty much define our model (as Latitudes) as well as 'sourcing' Square Root 3-alike 153: 265. And maths "motifs" recur on this model. They are thematically suggestive of Sacred Geometry ... only played out on Latitudes. So mappers, again? But how did they do it? When was it possible to know you were on a Lat. as specific as 51 53 00? The problem here is that the ability to have that kind of exactitude postdates some apparent model activity - if, indeed, there ever was anysuch model. Things and people are turning up at precise model points before the precision to do it existed. And that's a puzzle. It's worth conjecturing a pre-OS survey/mapping here, perhaps? OS only really gets going after 1800 AD but our model will find accurate activity from the 1750s and earlier - but then, as the investigation developed, I found some things that looked old were actually fairly recent in situ - and the more recent the placement, of course, the easier the explaining any accuracy - were such, of course, intentional. And dimensions? We seem to be using an ancient canon: 316.8 and 396, for example. Our numbers seem to be both those of Michell's original idea and those of gematria - see Bonnie Gaunt et al. Now, that would indicate a passed-down tradition, available to our model builders, again, if indeed there actually were there such a model! The numbers are said to indicate solar, lunar and earth values. But from what source/how, exactly? To cases: John Michell's first thinking cited 6 sites; the evocative Glastonbury/Stonehenge side plus Llantwit, Goring, Croft as vertices and a Whiteleafed Oak centre. No subsequent CPCer, including Michell, have ever proposed northern sites of any worth. - Croft simply not working with any of the other sites or dimensions. But no other CPCer than myself ever considered an axis running North-South. And, if we look at SJ707378 do we find a 'hook' from which to dangle our decagon? Certainly, the "Devil's Ring and Finger" sounds rather interesting!? These 'Whirl Stones', whose site is by the Roman road Leominche, appear to have been possibly near a once extant stone circle. The site itself sits twixt the As 51 and 53. I only note this last because, coincidentally, our model sits twixt Lats 51 and 53, pretty much, whilst 51 53 also occurs at Point St. John (as a latitude). If we look for the other end of this "axis", what of the ancient camp, fort, dyke and tumulii of White Sheet Hill, ST813351 and mirror-Lat. 51.115? It's exactly 126 miles away ... and just above 'Great Bottom'. Now that's at precisely 3 degrees off the Devil's Ring in terms of OS 'up'. If we drive a line from Point St. John, on the Pembrokeshire Coast, Lat 51 53 (3113) and SM719258 at 3 degrees off OS 'across', it will intersect our Devil's Ring axis at right-angles. We'll be standing on Raggedstone Hill in the Malverns, S0 761364, and just above Michell's Whiteleafed Oak centre and just below Hollybush and the 'Great City' once atop Midsummer Hill (until the Romans came!). Our latitude? 52.025 degrees exactly, a mirror. Robin Heath's Preseli vertex for his 5-12-13 triangle (above) is everso close to this Point St. John-Raggedstone axis and I mentioned a "significant site my model finds": my site is on this axis at a distance of precisely r (63) + phi r from the model centre at Raggedstone (where phi = 0.618* yielding 38.934 = also a decagon vertex and also the distance from the model centre to any of the pentagram multiple phi "precious gem" points such as 'holey' Hampnett which are where two pentagram chords intersect) = 101.934 miles. * See "stylised maths"/"cheating", below Pushing east, through Raggedstone, and from Point St. John, we'll find ourself at a decagon vertex. We'll be standing on Watling Street at SP774417, and 63 miles away from our centre. This vertex can fix all the rest, including the 'where' at Stonehenge and Glastonbury. Most every other CPCer I've looked at just assumes the centre of Stonehenge and Glastonbury Abbey as 'givens' - why? I call this assumption a tyranny - after all, just why should these sites command precedence in determining importance? No, I'll go where I'm sent: very close to these, but not exact. Next: a bit of cheating, aka stylised maths. Pi is set at 22/7 (which it isn't) thus turning our 126 miles diameter into a 396 circumference. The decagon it goes round will have a perimeter of 389.34 miles (if we set phi at stylised 0.618). 396 - 389.34 = 6.66 ... the Number of the Beast. A related 'Great Bottom' based octagon circle will be 8/10ths of 126 and 396, yielding 100.8 and 316.8. Its centre will be 12.6 miles south of Raggedstone along our axis and will sit on the Latitudinal equivalent of 22/7, with Lat 51 51 just above it on the axis (and in the River Severn).* And, if we double our octagon, then our new circum -ference cuts the axis just by the River Severn again, just near where it turns to the west, SO730971 ("Cave Cottage"). *Real values: 126 X Pi = 395.84 .. and 396/Pi = 126.05 ... 63 X 0.618033989 is 38.81 etc. The differences are up to 300 yards. Numbers like 864 and 432 (and 666) have solar connotations, 216 and 108 are lunar, 792 and 396 are earth - this in stylised canon. Now a decagon comprises 10 36 degree angles, cumulatively 36, 72, 108, 144, 180, 216, 252, 288 (Gaunt's value for the Stonehenge Station Stones' hypotenuse), 324, 360 ... and the table continues 396, 432 ... 792 ... 864 = they are ALL there (bar 666 which is 36 X 18.5). By moving our axes 3 degrees off OS 'up' and 'across' some of our 36 degree angles gain or lose 3 degrees to up and across: 'masonic' 3 and 33, for instance. Of the 4 'King's Peace' roads of Britain - Ermine, Fosse, Icknield and Watling - our model finds 3. We lack Ermine. But we get Fosse at Leicester, Watling at Old Stratford and Icknield at Goring. Add to these Leominche at the Devil's Ring and Finger and the Causeway at Glastonbury and ... Old Ways? Is that a theme. A number of these are at or by important river fords. Another theme? Next: the pentagrams. These are a decagon re-expressed. Where their chords meet is exactly the same distance from the centre as from vertex to adjacent vertex, a side. They are phi points. And, just by one of them, we find:  That's another 'holey' stone to go with the Devil's Ring and Finger. It's at Hampnett, just off the Fosse, and on an old Salt road from Droitwich at a site where three parishes meet. The quoit is often confused with a flat stone/stile set in the wall set some 7 feet away: "Hangman's". There is written provenance for a "Hangman's" in situ back as far as1759 AD - notably title deeds and a mortgage of the period 1766-69 - and the Gloucestershire OS of 1889-92 carries the name at grid ref. 408730, 215110 (as do earlier OS maps). But note: it is the stile that is identified as Hangman's (NOTES AND QUERIES, Frederick Norman, 1921 AD). So what of the other stone, the "holey" one, which, like the Devil's Ring, is "sort of lying against the wall" (Hamish - posting on THE MODERN ANTIQUARIAN)? "Crawford ...1920 .. found ... nothing" (at Hampnett) missing the stile/Hangman's (OLD STONES OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE, DP Sullivan). The other stone has no provenance! We're at Lat. 51 50, with OS refs. given varying from SP086 to 088 (0876) and from 151 to 152. And we've now collected 4 notable Latitudes: 51 53 (?Square Root 3 and 3113), 51 51 (?Pi), 51 50 (?Phi) and mirrors 51.115 and 52.025. Let me be quite clear here: to a tolerance of a few hundred yards, the Hampnett 'holey' quoit is at phi squared times the radius to our Raggedstone model centre, where this radius is almost exactly the distance from the Devil's Ring and Finger to this Raggedstone centre. What's more, this Hampnett site is also at phi times the radius to the relevant CPC vertex, Goring, this being the exact same distance, phi times the radius, from the Goring CPC vertex to the (adjacent) Stonehenge and Watling CPC vertices. And there's a nicety: the Devil's Ring-Raggedstone-Hampnett angle is 126 degrees (to complement our model's 126 mile diameter). We have 2 moved/abandoned 'holey' quoits, and we have phi:  * Note 1 Point St. John 3113 minutes of latitude = 51 53. 126 degrees is also 234 degrees (360 -). 234 mirrors as 432 and 432 + 234 = 666. And there's a third: over near Llandovery at Cilgwyn (see above) is another standing stone. It was moved to SN747300 by JJ Holford in 1825 - it says so on an attached plaque. This is on our model's circumference (and fairly close to the Rykenield Way), with the nicety that 1.825 degrees of the Earth's meridional (pole-to-pole) circumference, as in 1825 = our diameter of 126 miles.* * (24860/360) X 1.825 = 126.026389-ish - about 46 and 1/2 yards out .... if intentional! So: "Moving Menhirs"? Whilst the Cilgwyn stone states its 1825 move (from Beili-glas), there is no ancient provenance whatsoever for the sitings of the Devil's Ring and Finger and 'holey' Hampnett. They've been placed (or abandoned) where they are in modern times, too. I know of a trip that dates the Devil's Ring and Finger to1908, and photographs from that date, and there are local healing traditions that might tempt one to push the site provenance back further than 1908. There is also the interesting idea that the Ring was once a bargain stone associated with deals done at markets (local farmer) - you shook hands through the hole. This from the British library, 01-08-08 (and my thanks): We have checked our OS holdings and found that the earliest record seems to be on the 1965 National Grid 1:2500. The stones are leant against a boundary wall for Oakley Park but on The Arbour land, not emparked Oakley - though emparkment is an idea I've seen advanced for their relocation (and I read of landowner and groundsman activity in the C18th AD in a landscaping context and note the disappearance of numerous properties on the park (as now is) in the18th AD, noting also a date for the current Hall as circa 1710 AD (and C19th AD "Oakley Villa", now gone, or now the currently extant "Park House"). The Estate map* I have seen of Oakley was commissioned by a Sir John Chetwode. The map was probably circa 1710 -ish in date, the first Sir John inheriting in 1678 and knighted 1700, but there were two others pre.1st half C19th AD The builder of the hall was the first, and I think it likeliest it was he commissioned the pre-emparkment map. He became a "Sir" (1st Baronet) in 1700, building his new hall on the site of an older building extant at the times of Domesday (at "Aclei") and either surviving as (or succeeded by) a "substantial C16th AD manor house". The next Sir John, his grandson, is also of interest to us in that he joined the Royal Society in 1776 - and Royal Society members are a feature of the developing enquiry.** * Staffordshire Records Office, Ref. D1798/H.M.10 N.M.R.CAB.2. There's a note that only boundary features are shown (so this map can't be used to disprove stone circle-thinking at Oakley). The boundary with Arbour is clear but Estate properties once along it have gardens both sides. ** Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Stratford, FRS 1668 til expelled (1685) held Hampnett 1667-1689. Later the land west of the Salt Way was held by Sir William Scott, Baron Stowell, FRS 1793, brother of the Earl of Eldon, John Scott, FRS (also) 1793, whilst the land to the east of it was owned by the noted architect Thomas Hope of Deepdene (1769-1831), FRS 1804, father of another architect, Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, FRS 1880, another son, Henry Thomas, inheriting Hampnett. Dates: Scott 1812 on. Hope family circa 1812-1911. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66464 Notes (geoffss, 15-0808): I'm going to look into the idea that the Devil's Ring and Finger/Whirl relate to the nearby Bradling/ Bradding (Beating) Stone, which is a quoit-like menhir, a capstone, on the village green in front of the church at Norton-in-Hales, close to Oakley. Firstly, Andrew D Boden: http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~adboden/TERNVIEWadb.pdf This is a fascinating site and it crystallised a thought of mine from when I visited the site: that the two stones reminded me of the way gravestones get stacked against side walls in some church graveyards. But I'm not sure about the D R/F details: 'they were moved when the field was cleared for ploughing' is eminently sensible as an idea - albeit currently unprovenanced and undated - but the stones are NOT on the park and they are NOT built into the wall. Now ... an idea advanced elsewhere is that they come from the same hengy thingie as Bradling. I've got it in my notes that a Norton Rev. had the Bradling feature created - and I'm thinking C19th AD ... so what dates Bradling (which Rev.!) might inform the other ... or not ... Now I spoke at length to both Andrew and his source, Mr. Lovatt, of Norton Forge Farm (just west of the D R/F). Mr Lovatt did NOT confirm the idea that the Bourne family (of Arbour farm) moved the stones in order to plough the field (WW2) but said he was aware of it ... BUT noted that his Dad had never mentioned this (which he would have)and HE'D been there since 1899 (geoffss, 15-08-08). My thanks to both for their time and courtesy! The Devil's Ring and Finger/Whirl Stones are not apparent on the pre-emparked Oakley Estate map of circa 1710 but I note there a "Blew Stone", by Leominche, now no longer in situ: "the blew stone in Draton road". It was never shown on any OS ever (thanks BL!), but there is another Standing Stone, "Stone", that is: Old OS Ref:370239/3376059 on OS 1889-1952 inclusive, just north-ish of Oakley Hall. This stone was called the "Ineaz stone" on the circa 1710 estate map and last appears on OS (6"),1952. But it's not shown on the 1965 OS. Both Blew and Ineaz were mere stones - according to the estate map "handlist" of circa 1710 AD.* Note: Mr. Lovatt (above) did make mention - when asked re Blew and Ineaz - of a stone north of the hall and one by Bache Pool, close to our Blew site. "Big stone of blue granite," he said. He thought the 1775 (? - he said 1776) Yates map might carry it. Of course, if that's 'Blew', then this isn't part of the Ring and Finger twosome. *And what was a "Blew Stone"? I find one was a boundary marker (Newcastle), another an "ancient Saxon oath stone". But there's also a "blew stone" in Rosicrucian alchemy and I find them as gravestones/markers. The Blew Stone stood circa SJ70423687; the feature (Ineaz) "Stone" is/was circa SJ70223706. Blew and "curiously shaped" Ineaz are listed as mere stones on the estate map's "handlist" (George Firsoff to me). In Bacon, I find "mere-stone - a stone set up as a landmark". http://www.mindmagi.demon.co.uk/Bacon/reference/glossary.htm I've seen it conjectured that the 'holey' stone at Hampnett might also be a mere-stone/boundary marker. CAVEAT It seemed to me, at first, rather improbable that, if this "Stone" is worth recording, then other "Stones" would also rate recording ... if they were actually there to record, that is. But, no: "Stone" is still there in 1952 but no OS I've had sight of for Shropshire or Staffordshire pre-1965 records a Devil's Ring and Finger/Whirl Stones - even though we know they are in situ from at least 1908. And that raises a problem: if we know OS wasn't showing them when we know they were there, which we do, then what of all OS back to early C19th AD? Not being on any and all of these is no proof that the stones weren't actually there; it only proves they weren't recorded as being there, be they there or not, unfortunately. In my notes, I have records of previous enquiries greatly assisted by the help of Staffordshire HER staff, but we were unable to provenance both an early idea that "they've been in their current position for at least 200 years", and, subsequently, that they were mentioned in the context of a black and white photograph from the 1920s (North Staffordshire Field Club/NSFC Transactions) dating them as there in "the early 19th century". So 1908 is currently the first known mention on them. There were two antiquarian studies that merited enquiry: "The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire" Vols 1 and 2 (1798 and 1801) by Stebbing Shaw, and "The Natural History of Staffordshire" (1686) by Robert Plot. Here's the British Library on these two (and my thanks): I have looked at the books you mention, both in the indices
and in what
I considered to be the relevant chapters, and have not been able to find any reference to the standing stones you mention. (BL, email, 31-07-98) - Tithe and Parish (with both for Mucklestone, which incorporates Oakley) - with no sign of our stones on either, anymore than the stones appear on the Yates 1775 map of the area. The OS outcome is carried above - 1965! Meanwhile, my thanks here to all at the British Library and in Staffordshire - both Council and Keele Univ. Lib.- who have helped me with all this so courteously, carefully and considerately (geoffss). If, as some claim*, the stones are connected with a (mooted) stone circle at Oakley, then why are they the other side of the estate's fence/barbed wire/ stone wall? I note, again, that the two stones are not - as sometimes reported - part of the Oakley Park wall (although a wooden fence atop the wall back in 1911 kind of went through them). No, they lean against it at an angle on The Arbour side, just by a stream/pond, this possibly feeding the nearby Severn tributary, the River Tern/Tearne. * See Doug. Pickford, STAFFORDSHIRE, THE MAGIC AND THE MYSTERY and/or references in Tim Cockin, THE STAFFORDSHIRE ENCYCLOPAEDIA, 2000 (and my thanks!). Doug. posits a site slightly west of the Ring and Finger - twixt them and the river. This itself appears to have been rerouted: the circa 1710 Estate Map tells of an Oak whose branches were over where the River Tern used to run. "Broen" is worth reading at themodernantiquarian (on-line) on the Devil's Ring and Finger - but note the debris noted might be the result of the demolition of the estate's "village" of buildings that once lined the boundaries before the emparkment of the C18th AD? There again ... The 1838 NSFC p. 112 notes "a hitherto unrecorded disc barrow on the hill slope overlooking the stream at Oakley. There's a curiosity here in that the Nash CPC vertex also has one "unusual" for the area, I read. http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/252/ Note: Leominche and Mediomanum. Leominche Street is mentioned in Enclosure Acts. It appears to have connected Roman communications centre Chesterton, at Stoke, to the Severn ford at Wroxeter (Viroconium), 4th largest Roman civilian centre, and beyond. OS County maps late C19th-early C20th AD that I've seen place 'Little Manchester' by Leominche at the Oakley Park Lodge, to the right of the Devil's Ring and Finger*. And "Little Manchester" can signify Roman Mediomanum, where 'maen' (stone - as in menhir) has been suggested for the 'man' bit*. The suggestion - and one apparently once endorsed by the Ordnance Survey - is that Leominche/ Oakley/Arbour Farm area once had a Roman or Romano-British city in the vicinity. There is also the suggestion of a Roman (military) station north of Arbour Farm - which "Arbour" is supposed to suggest via meaning 'fort'. * Mr Lovatt (above) made mention of the fact that the name Little Manchester was still applied to this area by locals today. ** On this section of the circa-1710 Estate map, I read something like "harles yard". No mention of any "Manchester", little or otherwise. Just across the road - which aerial photography today shows at an utterly different angle to the River Tern to that of the "Draton road" on this "true and accurate" map of those times! - is what seems to read "harles well on Napley Heath" and "Lodg quarry". No actual Lodge, though - not that I could see - but it's there now MOVING ON: 36 degrees clockwise from the Hampnett site is another "phi" point (or "precious gem"): the Devil's Churchyard, a pagan worship centre, it seems. Two others are where the goat's horns meet (Shenstone, near Kidderminster) and where-the- lady's-legs-meet, by the River Severn (home of the "Berkeley Hunt" ... which is Cockney rhyming slang for ... where-a-lady's-legs-meet). Robin Heath's Preseli vertex for his 5-12-13 triangle (above) is everso close to our Point St. John-Raggedstone-Watling axis and I mentioned a "significant site my model finds": my site is on this axis at a distance of precisely r (63) + phi r from the model centre at Raggedstone (where phi = stylised 0.618 yielding 38.934 = also a decagon vertex and also the distance from the model vertices to any of the pentagram multiple phi "precious gem" points such as 'holey' Hampnett on the way to the centre ... which are also where pentagram chords intersect*) = 101.934 miles. We are by Llangolman** and the "Palace of the Sons", Plasy -meibion, just slightly south of the Gors Fawr Stone Circle*** and a couple of miles from the "The Dragon's Back", Carn Meini (Mynyn), the source of the Stonehenge bluestones****. * A radius goers through here from vertices to centre value phi r + phi squared r, the latter being the distance from "precious gem" to centre. **We are about 2-3 miles east of Temple Druid and its Melchior St Teilo holy well (+ sometime skull of St.Teilo as drinking bowl displayed in the church!). I read of a number of stones moved to a church nearby Temple Druid. The house there was a John Nash (he of Trafalgar Square fame) design from circa 1795 AD. The nearby church has a numbers of moved stones, it seems. *** "All that remains", writes Linda Dearden, "of a great circle of 12 such sites": http://people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/living-spring/sourcearchive/fs9/fs9ld1.htm **** More moving quoits: the Stonehenge bluestones, transported from "Ireland by Merlin, are thought (by some) to have been a circle hereabouts initially. http://www.britannia.com/history/h7.html Further west on our axis, at a distance of 126 miles from our centre (2 X r), we are just slightly north of Clegyr Boia, a neolithic site and home of the Irish Celtic chief and druid Boia, leader of "the last non-Christian Celts", d. 525 AD. The strange land markings visible at the site may well be recent, though, and the work of an artist ("Muis") living there!  The image is from GoogleEarth and was supplied to me by Paul Martyn-Smith (thanks, mate!). There appears to be a hexagonal design and some stones. To some vertices. If I work out my Leicester vertex I find myself at SK550002. Checking the site, I find myself reading of a lost stone circle at SK551002, Grove Farm Triangle, Leicester. Well, maybe: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=10103 We're just by the Fosse and the B4114 ("St. Johns"). St John, again ... and this one is at an angle to the model centre and the Point St John axis of 144/216 degrees. 36 degrees clockwise is the Watling at Old Stratford*, 36 more is Goring, another 36 is Stonehenge, another is Glastonbury and another is by Nash, near Llantwit Major. If we join up Nash to Leicester, Glastonbury to Watling and Stonehenge to Goring, then all these 3 (parallel) lines will be at 51 degrees off OS "up" and 39 degrees off OS "across" - and this angle on Midsummer sunrise is that generating (for some) the "Sunrise Line", and is said (again, by some) to be a property of Stonehenge at the Midsummer solstice. The centre of our model, of course, is just by Midsummer Hill, Malverns. * There was a St John's Leprosy Sanatorium on the Stony Stratford side of the Great Ouse once as well at a hermitage/Free Chapel of St John near 'le Shrob' - and our Watling site is next to various 'Shrobb/Shrob' things. The Knights Hospitaller (of Dingley) had premises in Old Stratford as did the St John's Friary, Northampton. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62618 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22786 The Shrobb area was once prefixed "Puck" (as in nearby Puxley), this being a Midsummer character aka Robin Goodfellow. I read of "a ditched trackway of probable prehistoric origin north of Shrob Lodge Farm (SP770417) running north-east to WatlingStreet - http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/whittlewood/deanshanger.htm - we're at SP774417 for our CPC vertex - so 2 Old Ways meeting? The Leicester vertex was also a St. John "rich" environment with its St John Church ruin at Aldeby, the B4114 St Johns, Johnstone Spinney etc. http://www.enderbycofe.org.uk/Aldeby.htm http://www.blaby.gov.uk/decision-making/mgDecisionDetails.asp?IId=4667&Opt=1 The sites are similar: Old Way and flood-plain/river. It got me wondering if Bran the Blessed was somehow identified with St. John the Baptist (c/o beheading). I'm not alone: http://egina.blogspot.com/2005/06/on-nativity-of-john-baptist.html http://www.knightstemplarquest.com/Templecombe.html I read in Graves that Bran is associated with the crow, a bird associated with time, sacrifice, oracle and the alder tree. We're in the turf of 'talking heads', grails, hallows, sovereignty and the protection of the land - and our floodplain Leicester CPC site is called ... Aldeby. He's also associated with the Spring Equinox but Graves notes a related event subsequently "changed" to midsummer (THE GREEK MYTHS II, p.493). Our Glynetrefnant vertex near Trefeglwys and Llawyglyn (the one 'opposite' Goring) has the villages Gwernau and Gwernafon nearby and is just by the feature "Stepping Stones" (across the river). There's a Roman road just to the north and the old camp Caer Derwllwydion just to the south. Gwern? He was Bran's nephew. Like Bran, he's alder, a tree associated with marshland and death-isles - and he is the son of a crow, Branwen. The 51 degree Midsummer sunrise angle is associated with the awen. This means insight/inspiration/seeing and is associated with Otherworld - as are river fords. Our CPC model combines both features - and it combines them with John the Evangelist, who "saw further". Midsummer Day, June 24th, is the birthday of John the Baptist. His opposites are cousin Jesus, 25th December*, and John the Evangelist, 27th December. The actual solstices are 21-22 June and 20-21 December. On the Midsummer (solstice) sunrise a number of our model's vertices a stylised sunrise line angle of 51 degrees. The date marks the beginning of the a decline/death of the sun (element fire) although John the Baptist is identified with its opposite, too, water: http://www.astrologycom.com/stjohnbaptist.html http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/festivals/midsummer.html * A note of caution re this day: I have seen January 6th (Gregorian) given as the birth day of Christ. There is the that view this was moved by the Roman Catholic Church to the 25th December to force a choice on those celebrating Saturnalia and the 25th December "birth of the Unconquerable Sun". So it is this "Unconquerable Sun" that John the Baptist (water) really opposes/mirrors. Some Christians still adhere to the 6th January birthday whilst some (Julian) are now 12 days adrift of this: 18th January, with Christmas Eve the 17th, a date of note to those enamoureed of mysteries re Rennes (and the Merovingians "Bloodline"/St Sulpice/St Antony/Sauniere/Sigisbert/Marie de Blanchefort et al). The Julian calendar dates to 46/5 BC. It was the same in structure as the Gregorian save for the differing occurence of leap years. The Gregorian dates from 1582 AD. It was introduced in England in 1752, requiring a number of days vanishing (as a one-off) to bring it back into line with the Council of Nicaea's fixing of the Spring Equinox to 21st Match in 325 AD (the event itself being 10 days out by 1582!): "Give us back our eleven days," was the reputed outcry: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2279/is_n149/ai_17782422 And the year first began on January 1st in 153 BC (Rome). That date was adopted in England, also in 1752, coming into effect 1st Jan. 1753. This was a change from the previous 25th March (Julian) which was retained (Gregorian) for tax purposes, becoming the 5th then 6th of April. Fascinating, eh? I am not suggesting for one moment that the "John" sites mentioned above were deliberately sited/named to fit to any model.* What I am trying to do is draw attention to the fire/water/Midsummer seasonal imagery: the 51 degrees that is Midsummer sunrise is also Midwinter sunset, whilst an equally stylised 39 degrees added finds (at right-angles) the 'northernmost moon' in the Stonehenge and Glastonbury area. And cherchez le right-angle (triangle) has been a pretty useful way-you-go mantra in this enquiry! ** * If I were I'd mention St John's, Glastonbury, and St John's, Eastnor, by Midsummer Hill. ** Anothersuch is created by the Pole Star and Sun at the Equinox. We also have Bran. Although this "Light-Bringer" seems to tie to Spring, rather than Midsummer, but noting Graves, above, it is fire and death that seems to be unifying features, and it is odd - but nevertheless true - that Bran is at Midsummer Hill, Malverns, as "Bronsil", whilst his father, Llyr, is Leicester. And his supposed grandaughter, the Princess Eurgain, Virgin Foundress of Glamorgan?* She's at Llantwit Major, allegedly, a Michell CPC vertex. This is c/o Iolo Morganwg circa 1801 - the one who forged the Perpetual Choirs triad (re Llantwit) et al and lived close by it. I think, though, that it's the date that's of most possible use: we're close to the first OS maps and the arrival of the term "Point St. John". * We've wandered into "New Jerusalem" territory/the lost 10 tribes/the alliance conjectured twixt the family of Caradoc and that of Jesus/Grail Lore - the Fisher Kings - Brons (Hebron) et al ... Joseph of Areimathea and Glastonbury ... http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.org/COLDFUSION/Chapter.cfm?CID=33 http://www.asis.com/users/stag/roylsoap.html SOME INSIGHTS: Well, thematically, insight is the insight in much of this: to reprise some notes above, we're looking at seeing further. So we have St John, the Celtic awen, their fords, holed stones, and the suggestion of Caer Sidi and Otherworld. The model is mirroring a stylised Stonehenge (and "St John") Midsummer .... and Midwinter, so the sun (and what it does - the "light", as in "seeing the") is part of the presentation. And our model contains the maths of the sun at the solstices and the equinoxes relative to (1) the moon and (2) the pole star. But that brings us to .... Cherchez-le-rightangled-triangle. This seems to be a part of the design - and with this mathematical way-you-go we also find pi, phi and Square Roots, all this Sacred Geometry in the company of the Ancient Canon of Number! But that brings us to ... Latitudes. Our maths finds a home on associated latitudes - Pi and Phi expressed as angles, with the nicety, c/o Stephen Dail of the Earth Mean Circumference, emc. It's on our model, just by ... The River Severn. And our model seems built round this river, aka Hafren ... where He Phren means 'Lower Mind/Mind Below' and 666. And this rather asks for a Noos, a spiritual/Higher/Seeing further Mind Above ... which brings us to ... Powered by WebRing. |
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