THE TRUTH ABOUT THE LEY LINE SYSTEM

The last two editors of the late The Ley Hunter magazine have in recent times, and in various publications and web pages, been denying the reality of the ley system as a true entity in its own right. The system is most definitely real, as I know from forty-two years of study and experience of the leys. The system is a complex one perceptible at several different levels, and through various properties which are set out below. There are various web links in each section related to each particular factor; to return to this page after following them, please use the Back button on your browser:

The Old Straight Track
The leys were re-discovered by Alfred Watkins of Hereford in 1921 as alignments of prehistoric sites, with some later ones such as churches and stretches of straight track and road. He put forward the idea that these represented a system of waymarking in prehistoric times for merchants and others who needed to travel distances. Others had also noticed the tendency, such as Sir Norman Lockyer and Wilhelm Teudt in Germany, but it was aggressively opposed by archaeologists.
History of Ley Hunting
Fringe Archaeology
The Ley Hunter 1969-1976
A Life of Ley Hunting
The Buckingham Palace Ley Line
The Old Stones of Staines

Subtle Energies
The idea of leys being associated with subtle energies in the landscape was raised at the time of the Straight Track Club, when energy effects were noted at some sites, and a novel by Dion Fortune put forward the idea of the alignments as energy flows, but it was not until 1961 that this found a wider following in the revitalising of interest in the leys by Tony Wedd of Chiddingstone. He linked the subject with UFO sightings and postulated a system of "magnetic lines and centres". Energy effects were noted at some sites (tinglings, tones in the head) and it was found that the alignments could be dowsed.
Dowsing Earth Energies
The Ley Revival, and Skyways and Landmarks
Detecting the Power in the Leys
The Real Stonehenge and Avebury

Width and Structure
Dowsing leys indicated that they had boundaries and therefore width, and, most importantly, actual reality. Most seemed to be about six paces wide, but a minority were wider, and it seemed there was a sliding scale of width against frequency of occurrence. One ley in particular, the E-Line travelling across southern Britain, was unrivalled in any others found for width and power: it is about 100 paces wide. There has also been work done on the nature and structure of leys, by Rienk Noordhuis of Holland.
The E-Line
Ley Structure

Subconscious Siting - A Network of the Sacred
It had been noticed from the beginning that non-prehistoric sites often aligned with the leys, particularly (in Britain where most of the work was done) churches. Alfred Watkins postulated that a decree from Pope Gregory to Abbot Mellitus in the seventh century might be the explanation for this, as it instructed him that churches should be built on sites of earlier temples. However, the phenomenon has been shown to be far more widespread and to include sacred buildings of all kinds up to the present day. Leys are not simply the remains of something ancient; they are are an on-going reality in our landscape.
Leys and Subconscious Siting
The Hidden Unity
The Mandir, the Synagogue and the Roman Road

One World-wide System
There are many examples of straightness and alignment all over the world - the "holy lines" of Germany, the lines on the desert at Nazca, Peru, the sacred "ceque" lines of the Incas, tracks in Bolivia, Maya ceremonial roads in Mexico, alignments in North America and the Native Australian "songlines". Although each area has its own characteristics, it seems that all are part of one system, and not separate occurrences based on some postulated factor in the human psyche. Three leys have been traced as great circles round the world using a globe and the lines seem to pass through some very significant areas. These are the E-Line, the famous St. Michael line of John Michell, and one joining the significant Native American sites of Sedona and Pipestone in America.
The E-Line Round the World
The E-Line in Nepal
The E-Line in New Zealand
The St. Michael Line Round the World
The Sedona-Pipestone Line

Effects of Heavenly Bodies
The leys, although an inherent part of the Earth, have a real connection with the wider universe. Spirals of energy at standing stones were found to reverse polarity six days after each new moon, and the energy flow in leys seems to double in width for a short time around sunrise and sunset. This even applies to the E-Line, which grows to a massive 200 paces in this short time each day, which varies in duration according to latitude.
The Solar Transition Effect
Leys and the Tides of the Day

Acumeridians of the Living Planet
Many traditional peoples, notably Native American and Australian, have always held that the Earth is a living being, with which we live in a kind of symbiosis. This was supported in Needles of Stone, by the dowser Tom Graves, who likened ancient structures to acupuncture needles which heal by affecting a system of meridians in the human body. Many ancient sites have traditions of healing, and the phenomenon of subconscious siting seems to imply that the on-going marking of the ley system with sacred sites is concerned with the Earth's health also.
Needles of Stone (downloadable book)
The Earth Breathes

What can we say of the song of the ley -
Sounding so faintly, and so far away?
Echoing hauntingly over the land -
Ever elusive, yet ever at hand.

Song of the joys and the sorrows of earth,
Singing of death, yet constant rebirth -
The face of the ley may change over time,
But the song of the ley is eternal, sublime.

Life in its fulness, and death with its pang,
Love of the mother, and carnivore's fang -
Life in entirety, darkness and light,
Song of all gentleness, song of all might.

Earth is the Mother, and Earth is the Force -
Earth of all life the umbilical Source -
Earth is the Cycle, as night follows day,
And the song of the Earth is the song of the ley.

Mountains and continents, oceans and seas -
Hurricane, earthquake and soft summer breeze -
Song of all being, to time without end,
Song of all songs the ultimate blend.

Taking, transforming the crude works of man -
Weaving them into its intricate plan -
Whether the knowledge be little or great
The song of the ley makes the crooked way straight.

Jimmy Goddard