Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

LEY LINES

Alignments and patterns of powerful, invisible earth energy said to connect various sacred sites, such as churches, temples, stone circles, megaliths, holy wells, burial sites, and other locations of spiritual or magical importance. The existence of leys is controversial. If they do exist, their true age and purpose remain a mystery. Controversy over them has existed since 1925, when Alfred Watkins, an English beer salesman and amateur antiquarian, published his research and theory in his book, The Old Straight Track. Watkins suggested that all holy sites and places of antiquity were connected by a pattern of lines he called 'leys'.

Mounds, barrows, tumuli, stones, stone circles, crosses, churches built on pagan sites, legendary trees, cas-tles, mottes and baileys, moats, hillforts, earthworks and holy wells were all thought to stand in alignment. Using the Ordnance Survey, Watkins claimed that the leys were the 'old straight tracks' that crossed the landscape of pre-historic Britain and represented all types of early human activities. Mter Watkins's theory was published, public fas-cination with leys remained high until the 1940s, when it began to decline. Interest revived in the 1960s and 1970s, as part of the New Age movement. While Britain has been the chief site of investigation, there also is interest in France, the United States, Peru and Bolivia.

Many archaeologists and other scientists dispute the ex-istence of leys and say the theory originated by Watkins was contrived because Watkins aligned secular and sacred sites from different periods of history. Even ley enthusiasts are divided into differing camps. Some hold that the pre-historic alignments can be statistically validated. Others agree but say that alignments continued in historical periods.

Still others contend that leys mark paths of some sort of earth energy that can be detected by Dowsing and, at least according to some, perhaps was sensed by early humans. The energy is compared to the flow of ch'i, the universal life force identified in ancient Chinese philosophy. Points where the ley energy paths intersect are said to be prone to anomalies such as earth lights and Poltergeist phenomena and reported sightings of UFOs (one theory suggests that the paths are navigational aids to extraterrestrial spacecraft).

These energy leys, however, do not necessarily coincide with physical alignments of sites. Despite the controversy, ley researchers hope at least to come to a better understanding of ancient sacred sites and of the people who built them.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc