BOOKS Mapping the mystical past

Bob Rickard explores the background behind the detailed scientific and experiential study of Britain’s ancient sacred sites

The Powers Of Ancient And Sacred Places

Paul Devereux

Daily Grail Publishing 2022

Pb, 294pp, £14.99, ISBN 9780645209419

One of the advantages of older age is that it provides a ready perspective on the development of a subject – in this case the importance of certain places to our ancient ancestors. Paul Devereux will be known to most FT readers as the venerable editor of The Ley Hunter before he progressed into more academic projects. Before Paul took over from its founder Paul Screeton in 1976, he was an early supporter of the young FT.

As editor of The Ley Hunter, Paul was particularly struck by the predominance of mystical and psychical approaches to the subject and determined to encourage more analysis and documentation of its very real aspects.

This approach was signalled by his very first contribution to FT, in 1975. Aided by Andy York, Paul wrote a 25-page, two-part study of the anomalous phenomena of his home county of Nottinghamshire (see “Portrait of a Fault Area” in FT11:5-12+14-18, 12:8-20). For the first time in FT – and English fortean studies – it broke new ground by focusing upon a distinct geographical, geological and cultural area to study the relationships, if any, between the widest possible range of unusual subjects.

Paul brought together data from geological and magnetic activity, reports of UFOs and hauntings, meteorology, meteorites, tales of supernatural or psychical events and experiences, forteana and, of course, ancient tracks and pathways.

In 1977, Paul Devereux was instrumental in the founding of the Dragon Project, which gave a more rigorous structure to all the associated fields of research, and this new book makes a brave and mature assessment of the pioneering work over the intervening years.

Depending (initially) upon private donations and unpaid volunteers, the Dragon Project set out to map, measure and record every conceivable aspect of ancient sites. These were not limited to fault lines and standing stones but included any ancient location related to ritual and reverence, the structure of symbols and the mysteries of measurement and construction, and associated lighting and light phenomena.

Studying acoustics of burial chambers, for example, emerged from the recognition of such locations for the use of initiation, meditation, dreaming, healing and other socially important rites.

In recent years the Dragon Project’s important discoveries have consequently changed focus slightly, to include aspects of the subjective phenomena experienced by people at sacred sites by studying human sensitivity to distinct locations, and the lore about them – for example the “Dreamtime” of the first Australians.

All of these aspects contribute to what Paul, borrowing Rudolf Otto’s term, calls the “numinosity” of such places.

They were deemed “sacred” by ancient man because their discoverers felt there was something different about these places. Often without ever fully knowing precisely why, a location can inspire in the receptive an emotional response that ranges from panic (in its ancient meaning) to awe. In other words, such places may well have given rise to the earliest forms of animist religion.

The book is divided into two distinct but interrelated sections – the physical phenomena and the more subjective experiential and psychosocial phenomena – concluding with a summary chapter on the nature of sacred places and their numinosity.

The first part includes such projects as the recent study of the innate resonance of Stonehenge’s standing stones, ringing at 111 Hz like “a prehistoric glockenspiel”.

The second includes an appreciation of the ancient mythological rationalisations of energy and sound which most likely influenced the earliest forms of mathematics and geometry. In those very early days – without modern distractions – people could cultivate their inner sensitivity to such places and, by meditating upon them in the dark and quiet, realise “wisdom” from “another” older but everpresent world.

To some extent this new book builds upon Paul’s Places of Power, published in 1999, but includes a wealth of new and important data.

More importantly, it feels like an end-of-era audit, benefiting from an additional 20 years of research, discovery and learning, and provides a fascinating overview of decades of dedicated work by Paul Devereux and his team of volunteers and backers.

If you have any interest in what used to be called “earth mysteries”, bring it up to date with this volume. ★★★★★