The nineteenth-century antiquary Alfred Watkins "rediscovered" ley lines - energetic paths connecting ancient sacred sites - and was the first to use this term in modern times. But of course they were known to the Ancients and temple builders the world over.

In his book "The Old Straight Track" (London: Garnstone Press, 1970) Watkins spoke of an experience in which he was "beset by a flood of ancestral memory" when he first saw ley lines etched upon the countryside.

He saw the landscape revealed in a new light - the hills and tumuli, stone circles and megaliths were all connected by shining paths, golden veins standing out amid the green and brown of the land.

Such experiences and knowledge are part of the earth Mysteries studied in Geomancy - the laws governing the siting and layout of holy places and the shaping of the landscape around them. Geomancy is the basis for the art of Feng Shui.

These matters were explored by the peoples who erected the stone temples at Avebury, Stonehenge and Brittany, though ley lines extend across the globe in a vast network or energy grid, connecting distant sites from Scotland to Australia, America, China, Egypt, Norway etc.

One of the more famous ley lines is the St. Michael line. (shown here - see further notes below)

In China, ley lines are known as Dragon Currents, in Ireland as Fairy Paths, in the Americas as Serpent Power. The Aborigines in Australia refer to a "line of songs" or a Dreaming Track. And in England, the ley line systems are referred to simply as the Old Straight Track.

Ley lines are marked by giant earthworks and mounds in the American Midwest, by dirt roadways leading from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, to Teotihuacan, Mexico, by a series of long, straight tracks emanating from Cuzco, the old Inca capital high in the Peruvian Andes which is associated in local tradition with a primeval, god-like race; by lines crisscrossing the Nazca plains of Peru- lines with great astrological significance, oriented in such a way as to predict equinoxes and solstices.

And they are marked by visible lines tying together every major religious site in Britain, from Stonehenge to the legendary Glastonbury Tor, home of King Arthur, Merlin and the Holy Grail.

Every early Christian church was sited along the flow of ley line current, the great energy located directly beneath the tower to produce the strongest fusion of heaven and earth.

The Dragon Currents of China mark all sacred paths and centers throughout that country. These currents are divided into those of yin and yang, positive and negative, the currents of the White Tiger and the Blue Dragon. The Chinese believe that the dragon pulse-the energy vortex - is at its peak where the yin of gently undulating country meets the yang of sharp rocks and peaks, particularly if this site is quiet and sheltered and secluded.

The ley-line system exists as an independent circuitry with the capacity to affect consciousness.

Ley lines are part of the Earth's energy system. Monuments serve to reveal or mark the network, making the sites more special by connecting and networking them together.

Ley, as a word, is akin 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." This connection of the word ley with light is significant on several levels. Physically, the clearing of tracks through the forest lights the way and marks the "ley of the land."

The nature of this field is yang or energetic. A person who sits or lies over a ley line for an extended time will tend to be 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.

People have commented on what it feels like when standing over a ley line - "Faint smooth energy; Energizing, white/fuzziness; Light, see a glowing line that goes with the direction of flow; Began to feel like I was weaving."

The St. Michael Line

Discovered by John Michell, this probably the most well-known ley of all. It links many places with St. Michael dedications across England, including St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, St. Michael's on Glastonbury Tor and St. Michael's on Burrow Mump.

St Michael's Mount is also the starting point for the infamous St Michael's ley, a broad line linking the Mount, St Michael's Church Brentor, St Michael's Church Burrowbridge, St Michael's Church Othery, St Michael's Church, Glastonbury Tor (shown below) and Stoke St Michael.



Early Christians began erecting chapels on the male serpent line, dedicated to St. Michael. These were studded along the former sites of the Celtic God, Lug. On the more curving female line, often near water or Holy Wells, Mary Chapels went up on the former sites of his consort, the Goddess. A perfect North-South line from Stonehenge passes through The Sanctuary near Avebury where the Michael and Mary line cross.

"We have been giving careful thought to the affairs of the English, and have come to the conclusion that the temples of the idols in that country should on no account be destroyed. Augustine is to destroy the idols, but the temples themselves are to be sprinkled with holy water, altars set up, and relics enclosed within them... In this way, we hope that the people, seeing that their temples are not destoryed, may abandon idolatry and resort to these places as before, and may come to know and adore the true God."
(taken from an edict by Pope Gregory)

The St. Michael line, is said to leave England in a north-easterly direction passing through Sweden, then south of Finland and across Russia to the meeting-point of Russia, Mongolia and China. It then roughly follows the Mongolian border, and goes across China to pass through Hong Kong. Then it goes through the Philippines and across Australia, passing through Sydney, before crossing to Stewart Island, New Zealand. From here it reaches its most southerly point in the Antarctic Ocean and swings north again, running along the border of Argentina and Chile, across Bolivia and Brazil, crossing the Amazon estuary. It then crosses the Atlantic back to England.