An Introduction to Duke's Ley Line

In this blog I intend to discuss in brief one of the most interesting Ley Lines I have researched and visited. When I first started researching Ley Lines I came across the Duke's line and although I could instantly see it was of extreme importance it is only relatively recently that I have discovered some information that could highlight just how interesting this Ley Line may truly be. The reason that I have said I will be discussing this line in brief is because I have yet to come to a final conclusion as to the validity of the interesting aspects of this ley line. I am certain that this line is a very power energy channel but I am also sure that to fully explore this subject would take a significant amount of time and is certainly beyond the scope of a single blog post. I would like to introduce the subject here and would encourage the serious student to do there own research. I  will be doing a lot more and I will of course be keeping you all up to date with my finding. It would be great if those of you researching the subject could let me know your findings in the comment box below.

An introduction to Reverend Edward Duke

Rev. Edward Duke is famed for his book The Druidical Temples of the County of Wilts which was published in 1846. In this book Duke puts forward the proposition that the sites in Wiltshire are actually placed in such a way as to accurately create a solarium or map of our solar system. The axis of this model being the ley line I am discussing, which is known of course as the Duke's Ley Line in respect to this theory.

Dukes was born in Amesbury which is of course on the line he theorized  about and is also a site that is linked with Stonehenge in that it is in all probably where many pilgrims to Stonehenge would have left there boats and began there journey to Stones. After years of research and personal observations he concluded that the Druid temples in the Wilts landscape are located proportionally at the right distances from the sun and of course between each of there orbits. When measuring distances in the solar system we use what is called an astronomical unit AU, which is this distance from the sun to earth. Rev Edward Duke was treating the Earth as Silbury Hill and the Sun as one of the inner circles of Avebury, which is 1.4 KM.

The Celestial Bodies of the Duke's Ley Line

Earth - Silbury Hill
The Sun - Avebury Inner Circle
The Moon - Avebury Inner Circle
Mercury - Walkers Hill
Venus - Winterbourne Basset
Mars - Marden
Jupiter - Casterly Camp
Saturn - Stonehenge
Uranus - Bellas Knap
Neptune - Christchurch Harbour



Many people have dismissed Duke's ley line and the speculation that it represent a map of our solar system on the basis that some of the sites he has used as evidence for this theory are not located exactly place where we would expect to find the planets they represent in the solar system. He is also accused of being rather liberal with his measurements.

Having done some initial investigation into the distances between these sites and there relative position in the solar system it is clear that the distances do not correlate in a simple fashion. I must state that Duke did not claim they did and although some people writing on this subject suggest that he did this is simply not the case. By just looking at the diagram above you can see that the site for Earth is closer to the Sun than Mercury which of course it is not.

Looking at the ratios superficially at this stage it seems doubtful the distances offer any real or accurate map of our solar system. I must admit this does require much deeper analysis but I would be surprised if using accurate distances that Rev. Edward Duke's theory would be proved statistically valid.

I say statistically valid because in my mind there are a lot of valid points Duke's seems to be making about his ley line. He like myself and Alfred Watkins seems to have drawn evidence from place names among other things, although this can not be proved with statistics. It is also worth pointing out that if these sites where built to represent the planet then this would still be a fascinating piece of information even if the distances are not accurate.

This may seem like clutching at straws trying to defend a disproved theory and I would certainly not be trying to suggest this unless this type of activity had been carried out worldwide, something that authors such as Graham Hancock have suggested occurred in places like the Nile. As seems to be typical with this blog I will leave you with some food for thought and encourage you do your own research and find your own conclusions. Do the sites on the Duke's like fundamentally represent the planets or something else in a holographic universe?

  
As Above so below!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZsxhlEWqgY

St Catherine's Hill - Christchurch Dorset

Today I decided to visit St Catherine's Hill in Christchurch. Although this is somewhere I have been in the past I have never explored it from a historical or energetic perspective. The hill is significant for a number of reasons and its natural beauty and panoramic views should not be ignored. As you would expect from this blog it is located on a UK Ley Line of extreme importance and interest.

The Hill features 11 mounds or Tumoil and evidence has been found that the site was in use as far back as 4000 years ago. These mounds are hard to find. Even though I found a few hidden in the beautiful thick new forest heather, I feel some serious exploration would be needed to find all of them.

I intend in this blog post to explore the significance of the site in terms of its position on the UK Ley Line, but also to show some of the magical history and mythology which surrounds it. Those of you who are familiar with the subject of Ley Lines will no doubt be aware of the reports of "paranormal" activity which is associated with Ley Lines and St Catherine's hill is no stranger to this kind of activity.

Whats in a name?

Over the last few years I started to pay attention to the names of places and consider what significance this could indicate to us. In my first blog post I talked about how Sir Alfred Watkins had not come up with the term Ley but that he had merely chosen to use it because he discovered that many of the settlements on the lines he was studying had the term ley, leigh or similar incorporated into their names. I have noticed that St Catherine's Hill is a common name for hills on Ley Lines and having researched into this a little I stumbled across some interesting perspectives. 

Many are familiar with St Catherine through the fire work named after her supposed death. This imagery could play a part in the reason for naming these hills after this particular saint. 

St Catherine was a woman of Nobel pagan birth who converted to Christianity in her early teens. In 1830 Catherine claimed to have seen an apparition of angel who lead her to "the beloved virgin". The beloved virgin is then said to have shown Catherine a medal and instructed her to replicate it and provide it as a healing tool, a design that is now known as the miraculous medal.

"The Two Glowing Wheels" Hamburg November 4th 1667"

Catherine later said she had seen Jesus who she claims to have wed and consummated the marriage with. I only mention this because some authors have drawn similarities between Catherine's experiences and other religious figures, such as Constantine, who are purported to have seen flying crosses in the sky or "miracles" of this nature, which some speculate are what we now call UFOs. I am unsure if St Catherine ever claimed to have seen a flying cross but I sure this can be explored more by the curious of you. Please let me know your finds!


St Catherine was eventually put to death. Her intellect and debating skills had converted many pagans to Christianity and eventually she was put to death. She was initially meant to have been killed  using a wheel based torture device but in what is described as a miracle she escaped this and was beheaded. It is this association with the wheel that we are lead to believe is why the firework is named after her. I have to wonder if this wheel based torture device was chosen to ridicule Catherine for her beliefs or accounts, in the same way that Jesus was put to death wearing a crown of thorns.

Some writers speculate that the association between Catherine and spinning circles of fire has led to hills with a high rate of UFO accounts historically to be named after her. I know that there was a Church on the hill called St Catherine's but of course this only begs the question as to why the church was named after her. This connection might seem tenuous but you only have to google "St Catherine's hill UFO" to see there seems to be some strong correlation between the two at sites all across the world.

Another interesting aspect to this could be a simile between the sites and Catherine herself. As I mentioned St Catherine was born of Pagan nobility and was much loved by many people. She converted to Christianity and eventually converted many more. 

St Catherine's hill's history is like this in many ways. Like most ancient sites in the UK through history they have been used by many people for many different things. Some as settlements and some as places of worship. It was common practice for an invading nation to use the original sites of worship for the new churches in order to encourage the population to convert religion. St Catherine was a pagan turned christian who converted pagans to Christianity. The archaeology of this site shows it has been used in this way over the years and a site named after a christian such as St Catherine loved by pagans would have been a great way to convert the locals. 

The Disappearing Stones

St Catherine's hill is part of a local folk story. The story goes that in 1094 after the destruction of the Christchurch Priory the local Bishop decided that he would move the church to St Catherine's hill. After moving all the materials to the hill they mysteriously disappeared and reappeared on the site that the priory is now built on. They were moved back, and again the same happened. Eventually the Bishop gave in and built the church on the site where the materials kept ending up at, namely the current day location of Christchurch Priory. 

This is not the only tale of this happening throughout history. The story is common and usually based around locations where pagan sites have been adapted for roman or christian use, the eventual location of the site usually ending up in the middle of a druid tree henge. The argument being that the locals wanted to continue to worship on the same site so they moved the stones and materials back overnight until eventually the new temple was built on the old pagan one.

This legend being applied to St Catherine's hill would suggest that the locals placed more significance on the site the church is now built on than they did St Catherine's Hill. As I will explain shortly these two sites are on the same Ley Lines, so maybe the current site was purely deemed more practical for worship than St Catherine's Hill or maybe the energy is more suitable for worship?

St Catherine's Hill on the UK Ley Line Grid

St Catherine's Hill is situated on an interesting point on the UK Leyline grid. It is on a leyline that seems for several reasons to be of significance. I intend to explore this ley line in more detail in later blogs but I would like to give you a quick overview now.

The hill is situated on a Ley Line which runs from Hengistbury Head Christchurch through St Catherine's Hill, Salisbury, Pewsey, Cleeves Hill and Stonehenge before reaching Avebury. The Line then continues its way up the spine of the UK before leaving British soil at John O'Groats, the most northern part of main land Britain.

This Leyline is significant in that it passes through two of the most important sites on the planet, Stonehenge and Avebury and from what I have found this seems to be the only Leyline which directly links these two points but it is not only this that makes this ley line stand out to me. This line has come up in research for a couple of other reasons.

To me it seems that the most mystical and powerful sites I have visited in the UK and the world are Stonehenge, Avebury and Glastonbury. Avebury and Glastonbury both being on the famous Michael Mary ley line. Now if you put these three sites on a map you will find that they form a perfect right angle triangle. Now this is interesting eh? Not done yet!

This leyline has been given a name. The Duke's leyline. It is named after Reverend Edward Dukes who came up with an interesting theory. Rev Duke proposed that this leyline and the sites on it represent a solarium with each site being geocentrically placed to represent the planets in our solar system. So the ratio between sites on this line is the same as the ratio between the planets and of course the sun. To go into the validity of this is something I intend to do in future blogs, it might take a few!

I know this is a bit of a cliff hanger but to really get to the bottom of this will take time. I am open to suggestions for my next blog articles. I hope you have enjoyed reading this. I would like to leave you with a few photos I took at St Catherine's Hill.  Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Ley Lines and Consciousness

I often get asked about Ley Lines and I find it difficult to truly explain what they mean to me. So I want to make this post in a way that will show why I think this topic is so important.

I believe that ley lines represent a backbone of our collective consciousness. 



My Analogy

Imagine you are a blade of grass in a field. As well as the sun light you receive you will need water in order to grow and thrive. Some of this water will be provided by the sky and some of this water will be provided by the local rivers and underground water network.

You wouldn't want water that had been polluted for example. Now lets say, just for example, the water from the sky has been polluted. I don't know how! Lets just image, for the sake of the analogy, that the chemicals coming out of the back of airplanes are polluting the rain.You would now become very dependent on the local sources of water!

For thousands of years farmers have been redirecting some of the water from rivers into their fields through irrigation channels. This is done in order to help the crops in the field get the water supply they need in order to thrive. Of course this is great if you are one of the crops the farmer intends to help but in all probability the farmer will be redirecting the natural flow of water in order to help the crops he sells not an ordinary blade of grass.

Another thing to consider in this world is pollution to the local river networks. If a chemical company was dumping pollution into your river networks it would have a dramatic effect on your growth. You would literally be drinking these chemicals.

Ley Lines are of course the rivers and underground water networks.

The Real World

To me energy is consciousness and consciousness is energy.

We are all connected. In the same way that the air you breath has been breathed by every human being that has ever lived, and logically also by every animal and plant, we are all connected energetically. Ley Lines are the paths where this connection is strongest. Like the rivers and underground water feeds the blades of grass, the field of our collective consciousness is connected through ley lines.

We do receive, send and participate in the collective consciousness through lots of layers of energy, ley lines are certainly an integral part of this. Like the way a blade of grass interacts with the water cycle and ecosystem, we also interact with the collective consciousness.  

This really is where my analogy ends. This is because unlike a blade of grass we are not rooted to one point. We can travel. We can also heal our ley lines and inseminate positive conscious energy into the ley lines in a way that a blade of grass cannot heal the local rivers.

In my analogy I talk about irrigation. Has this been done to the ley lines? Have people acted like farmers manipulating river to their own endeavors  It is clear that throughout history there has been a massive amount of interaction with ley lines but has this involved manipulation of the natural state of affairs and if so to what end? Has this manipulation been in the interest of humanity or more importantly the harmony of planet earth and all of her inhabitants?

I feel that this is fascinating topic and something that can be used for positive endeavors for anyone with an interest and willingness to act.  

Ley Lines and the Earths Magnetic Field

Ley Lines and the Earths Magnetic Field

When I first became interested in Ley Lines, around 5 years ago, I approached the subject with an air of cynicism. Although I was fascinated by the whole topic it was certainly not something I was sold on. At the time I was researching a lot of conspiracy theories and it seemed important to me to be discerning to all my areas of interest. During my research I began to find more and more evidence to suggest that Ley Lines were in fact a very real and interesting phenomenon.  

Now of course when researching Ley Lines in the UK one inevitably gravitates towards Stonehenge. Although it didn't take long for me to realize the significance of Avebury in the UK Ley Line network, I have to admit that I was not even aware of the sites existence until I started investigating Ley Lines. How strange is that? Europe's largest standing stone circle and I had never heard of it. The conspiracy theorist part of my mind boggled! 

During my research on Stonehenge I came to a simple conclusion. There had to be a magnetic or functional purpose behind Stonehenge. The main topic of interest with the general public is how were the stones actually transported? Now what seemed more interesting to me was why would they have gone to so much effort to get certain stones? 

To give those of you not familiar with the stones at Stonehenge a brief explanation... the majority of the stones are from a site near Avebury less than 20 miles away, these are the Sarsen stones. However the Blue Stone of the inner core of the stone circle are from Prescelly which is around 200 miles away. So given that the majority of people seem to be most interested in the logistics of carrying a stone that heavy that far, why on gods earth would they carry certain stones further?

One explanation is the appearance of the stones, as the stones from Prescelly look especially attractive when wet. However, this theory holds little weight in my mind, given the excessive weight of the stones in question (some 60 tonnes in weight for each stone.) The Prescelly stones are also said to have held certain healing properties, which may be a more plausible reason why they were chosen to feature in Stonehenge.

Although I do not doubt that Prescelly blue stones do have healing properties this does not really justify the scale of the site. If you look at conventional thinking on how Stonehenge was built it is estimated to have taken 30 million man hours, a fact that puzzled me as a child. We are meant to believe that this was a society of people living hand to mouth and yet they had 30 million man hours to devote to superstition! Hardly likely.  

I am certainly not an expert in crystals but I am led to believe that the Prescelly blue stone has a different crystalline structure to the Sarscen stones and that this is the reason these stones were transported so far. This crystalline structure is said to interact with the energy of the Ley Line and cause the stones to give off an electromagnetic field. What effect and to what purchase this achieves is something I can only speculate on at this time and not something I intend to go into in this post. 

Now this conclusion could seem like a wild leap especially since I seem to lack any real scientific knowledge of the crystalline structures I am referring to. In making this conclusion I considered lots of research that has been done into the magnetic of the planet and how these interact with Ley Lines. 


In 1972 Ivan Sanderson researched all the disappearances of planes and ships since these records began he noticed that there were significant concentrations of these disappearances in 12 key locations on the planet. Yes you guessed the 1st one, the Bermuda Triangle. What is most remarkable about this is that these 12 locations are equally spaced across the planet in a geometric shape. These 12 places are sites with huge magnetic anomalies and form a Icosahedron shape. Although Sanderson discovered this in the modern age, it was something Plato had also contemplated millennia before. 












The work of Ivan Sanderson has been developed greatly over the years and many authors have expanded his original grid. Much of this work was done by researchers Bill Becker and Beth Hagens. These researchers used a shape derived by R. Buckminster Fuller to expand the grid of the earth and they clearly found the megalithic sites on the planet were all located on these lines or points where they interact. Stonehenge of course being one of these points. I recently came across an interesting picture which show the effects of magnetism on ferrofluid. This showed a clearly defined pattern, as you would it expect but it also seemed to me to be very similar to the grid of World Ley Lines we are now familiar with. 

Now what did seem a fascinating idea to me was that this would help to explain how Ley Lines include man made and natural features, as I discussed in my last post. If megalithic structures likes Stonehenge were build in accordance to magnetic pattern of the earth then surely you would expect to see natural features which line up with these. Although I am no geologist, I can only assume that a strong magnetic force in a certain area would impact the formation of a landscape and enhance peaks and troughs, such as the mountains and lakes we see lining up with man made sites on ley lines. 

I know this discussion has brought up as many questions as it has offered answers to, I can only encourage you to do your own research. I am certainly not an expert on this subject I just seem to be more interested than most! 

I would very much love to hear your thoughts and views on this topic and I encourage you to leave your comments. If there is something to do with Ley Lines you would like to discuss with me please let me know. 

What is a Ley Line

What is a Ley Line? 

The term Ley Line refers to a geometrical alignment of ancient sites. These alignments form straight lines, some across massive distances, marked by neolithic monuments, hill tops, churches, cathedrals and even modern buildings. 

The term Ley Line was first used by Sir Alfred Watkins in his books, Old British Trackways and The OId Straight Track, following his discovery of Ley Lines in 1921. Although Watkins is famed for coining the phrase Ley Line although it is probably a term used well in advance of his discovery. Watkins himself chose this term for his discovery because he noticed that many of the settlements that these lines passed through had the word Ley, Lea, Leigh in their name. So I am sure you would agree that he rediscovered this term.  

Alfred Watkins himself did not see any any mystical purpose to the Ley Lines. His conclusion was that Neolithic man had erected these structures and taken advantage of natural peaks and features in order to create track ways that could be navigated by eye and line of site. This network of track ways would have been neolithic mans road network and map in one. 

At the time of Watkins publishing his books the main argument against his Ley Line theory was that the neolithic man was not sophisticated enough to implement such a system. This argument has long since been dismissed as a greater understanding of neolithic society has been discovered and indicates that the people in this age were capable of such feats. A second argument, something Watkins himself was cautious of, is that if you have a sufficient amount of monuments and markers this will inevitably result in straight lines. Watkins inspired people to go Ley Line hunting and he created a point system so that the validity of a Ley Line could be measured and tested. He concluded that a true Ley could only be confirmed if it passed through at least 4 significant sites and peaks, to act as view points. Here is his points system...

Mounds 1 Point 
Stones 2  Point 
Circular Moats 1 Point
Castles 1 Point
Beacon's 1  Point 
Traditional Wells 1 Point 
Churches 3/4 Point (some later ley hunters have given churches a full point)
Crossroads (if named ancient) 3/4 Point 
Road Alignments (higher value if 1-1/2 miles or over) 1 Point  or 1/4 Point 
Fords (higher value if notched) 3/4 Point or 1/2 Point 
Tree Groups (higher value if on hilltop with ancient name) 3/4 Point  1/4 Point 
Single Trees (only if ancient and named) 1/2 Point 
Notches 1/2 Point 
Track Junctions 1/2 Point 
Camps 1/2 Point 
Ponds 1/4 Point Square Moats 1/4 Point     

The total points would test the validity of one Ley Line compared to another. Although I greatly admire Alfred Watkins initial discovery and his scientific dedication to his theory I feel that time and technological advances have taken the theory of ley lines to a greater and more interesting place. An example of this would be churches. I have discovered through research that after the Roman's introduction of Christianity in the UK the pagans were easier to convert if the churches were built in the center of their sacred site. It would seem it was the location that revered. To me Churches on such sites should be given a greater significance. This is information that can now be readily found on the internet, a luxury that Watkins himself did not have. 

The research following Watkins findings have resulted in what would appear as a disjointed network of ancient sites in an undoubted linear fashion. However I feel that this is the result of a variety of factors such as misguided research and an incomplete survey of the lines. The UK is a prime example of this and we can see from the UK Ley Line map that there does not appear to be an easily identifiable pattern or logic behind the lines as a collective. 

  

I believe that if we can identify a Ley Line that spans between cultures that would have had no interaction it adds significance to the Ley Line and also raises significant doubt over Watkins' theory that these sites were used as navigation tools. Even if different societies used this technique the statistical chances of these lines aligning is such that this can not presented as a rational theory. Lines like these have been identified world wide and there is very strong argument being presented that ancient sites are in fact all connected by a world wide network of geometrical alignments. If we believe this is the case it raises a variety of interesting points. One being that this would disprove Alfred Watkins hypothesis that these were used exclusively as line of site paths for navigation. If you have discounted this then it leaves you with the interesting conundrum of how these "man made" alignments that clearly include natural features of significance. It could be then argued that the existence of world wide Ley Lines implies a global initiative, world wide co-operation or mutual understanding between man and nature. All of these would of course suggest a very different prehistoric culture to that currently perceived.