Earth Energies (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown)

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went a process of mummification. He

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to preserve snakes,

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experiments, Czech radio engineer

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by a score of 2.43 to 2.24. But this success was mitigated in a second trial, when the wines from the pyramid lost by a margin of 2.49 to 2.56.

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k .i

25

for

several days in a Plexiglas pyramid.

V,

died inside the Great Fyramid under-

lizards. Inspired

Los

firm, theorized that the struc-

Objective tests of pyramid

I

Antoine Bovis visited Egypt and be-

and

E.S.P. Laboratory, a private

tures served as "geometrical amplifi-

\

shape. In the 1940s, French occultist

frogs,

similar

ers,"

intrigued by the pyramid

wooden pyramid

made

subjects meditated in hollow pyramids.

^

later revised

that stray cats that

my body."

in California

assertions following tests in which

By the time 1925 had come and

came convinced

she told Time mag-

S

gone, students of the paranormal had

become

In 1973,

f

In the 1800s, British

1874— an estimate 1914, 1920, and 1925.

later

ported by American movie star Gloria

led to predictions of the world's

in

indefinitely.

j

fy

an ancient unit of length they called the pyramid inch. Calculations based on this abandoned system of measure-

end

According

Equally beneficial effects were re-

i

Egyptologists discovered references to

ment

would stay sharp

(

j

for storing razor blades.

"-.'».'

given a perfect ear of corn, referred to as

of being rooted to the place of their birth. In

infant

Eliade's opinion, the claims of this intimate

"mother corn." To the Hopi,

this ear

sense of belonging were far stronger than

symbol of the Great Mother;

it

any possible demands of nationality or even family.

Among

be buried

other things,

in their

it

made people

it

have thought

own

provisioned with supplies for an

axis,

ing,

species,

whose

ble event,

is

it

Perhaps what

bound

a practice of sacrificing pregnant

And

is

most

Central America and in parts of ancient India. In

tell-

were

some

cultures, the

good mother

it

earth

was believed to represent I

entirely likely that humanity's intimate

sense of identification with the powers of the earth

may have been inherited by the earliest representatives of our own species, Homo sapiens. [reat many customs and folk beliefs

justice or

stemmed from

primal sense of connection and

There was

from the related concept of human mothers serving

one long-

social con-

science

Among some

.

standing tra-

among

tribes in the outlying regions of Australia, Africa,

dition

China, and South America,

Slavic peasants,

it

is still

considered ad-

visable for mothers to give birth directly

ground A variation on to place her birth,

this

newborn on

theme

is

on the

so as to recognize the baby's true parentage.

ifter its birth.

As

for instance, to call

upon the earth as a witness

for the mot!

the earth immediately following

the Hopi Indians today, a child

is

part of the

not

sows

to Tellus, or

a few cultures, the observances were

man. This was apparently the case among the Aztecs of

Joseph Campbell's suppositions are correct, then

as surrogates for the mother earth.

in

taken to an extreme and the sacrificial offerings were hu-

If

this

necessary to offer sacrifices to the goddess

such as an earthquake or a drought. The Romans

in the fetal position.

seems

different cultures

and the

the fact that the skeletons

frequently discovered

Many

on an east-

afterlife,

carefully oriented

presumably because the sun was reborn

however,

spiritual

the land or o f smoothing things over before or after a terri-

made

that path every day.

its

sapiens neanderthalen-

Terra Mater.

on

meet

of the earth in hopes of assuring the continued fecundity of

75,000 BC. Neanderthal graves were frequently

west

to

misbehavior of their children, and the Great Mother was

never considered an exception.

time on earth lasted from perhaps 200,000 to

tombs were usually

then completed by

is

dawn

and

as a spiritual

find-

a distant ancestor to our

sis,

integral part of her life

its

not merely a

Mothers, of course, will occasionally grow angry at the

womb

Campbell cited as evidence certain

Homo

is

father, the sun.

men and women

the concept of burial as a return to the

ings in the graves of

an

The naming ceremony

guide.

believed that one of the very earliest abstract

ideas entertained by prehistoric

for rebirth.

is

of corn

valued by the recipient throughout

taking the infant outside at

Another great student of myth, the popular

was

is

long to

homeland.

American scholar and commentator Joseph Campbell,

is

named

until

disputes relating to land or property.

its

Among

litigant

twenty

naming ceremony,

in all legal

point of view with a dirt clod

head, the allegations were

the

26

If

a

solemnized an oath by stating his

on top of

deemed

his

incontest-

able. Similarly, certain African tribes relied to

avenge

all

upon

breaches of morality. They believed,

rock ledges and groves of trees. Mountains have attracted

the earth for

exam-

which

their share of attention,

understandable, perhaps,

is

was deeply offended by the spilling of human blood and would demand a sacrifice on the part of the offender as a means of atonement. A village official who was specifically devoted to such matters

Calvary-the place outside Jerusalem where Jesus was

would assess the penalty, which might involve the

crucified— was the topmost point of a cosmic mountain and

ple, that

the very spirit of the earth

a goat or some other domestic wounded person or the family of

The

ing in such adjudications. the angry

mother

since they give the appearance of connecting the land and the sky.

killing of

there

the site of

junction of major biblical events, because the cross of Jesus

sole concern

was

man been held sacred by some

have also been special places

in

feel that

he was born

every part of the

burial.

is

known

ple of Nepal,

who

It

presented a neat con-

on top of the very grave of the

redeem. And the peak that Westerners

to

Mount Everest and view as a

conquered

cultures,

they were in tune with the energy or

birth

Christ could be planted

to pacify

world that were singled out because they seemed to help people

and

animal. Interestingly, the

earth.

the entire planet has

Adam's

revered as places where the

earth. For Christians, Golgotha, or

a murder victim got noth-

call If

Many peaks have been

heavens recharge the

as

physical challenge to be

Chomo-Lungma

cherish

it

to the native peo-

as the mother mountain

of the universe.

A common

spirit

among many

trait

sacred places

is

that

of the earth. Like Newgrange, these locations were thought

they are set off by clearly marked boundaries that distin-

of as places where the powers of heaven and earth inter-

guish the holy ground from the profane. In the view of Mir-

mingled, and for that reason, they were held to be sacred.

cea Eliade,

came

to

be

known

as places where godly

transmitted to humankind.

It

was through

wisdom was

the

coming

that people learned to feed

many

all

lievers to

to-

life.

The

rituals celebrated

presume

It

mys-

allowed be-

that the

coming

together of the divine and the mortal,

which had consecrated the

themselves and ensure their ac-

the necessities of

essential to the

tique of a sacred ground.

gether of the divine and the mortal, or so the story went,

cess to

emphasis on putting bounds between the

two spheres was

Quite often, these sites took on additional significance as they

this

on

place,

was

holy grounds re-created the process by which such

knowledge was acquired.

was not

site in the first

a one-time event but

instead an ongoing circumstance

that continually filled the place with

Sacred places run the gamut from locations of ex-

special power. Certain Indian tribes of

traordinary natural splendor to rather ordinary sites such as

North and South America have had a longstanding custom of returning to the sites that tion to origin. in

be

were deemed by

tradi-

their ancestors' places of

They would make

hopes of restoring

this

journey

by

their vitality

tapping the primal source of existence.

As Eliade interpreted the •\

.

holy place of the Indians

|

exhaustible source of

practice, the

became "an

in-

power and sacred-

ness and enabled man, simply by entering

Two bronze Etruscan statuettes from the fourth and fifth centuries BC depict a priest and a plowman, both of whom had roles to play in the planning for a new city. The priest was instrumental in determining a propitious site and conducting rituals to placate the

spirits

of the

The plowman contributed by digging a trench where the walls of the city would be built. Offerings were then placed in the furrow earth.

to bring the city into

27

harmony with

the earth.

Clothing shed by pilgrims in a symbolic act of casting off their old selves litters the slopes below Tibet's Mount Kailas. Long a fixture in Sanskrit literature, Kailas is sacred to Buddhists and Hindus alike. "One walk around Kailas washes away the sins of a life, " a Western believer once explained. He added that by circling the mountain 108 times, one could achieve nirvana in this life.

to

it,

have a share

power, to hold communion with

in the

the overall effect of the place

the sacredness."

most

In

tive state of

human

and

folklore,

hallowed

beings but are

somehow

religious traditions

places are not chosen by

revealed to them. Sometimes the holy ground

for

example,

is

a sacred site for

desert of central Tunisia.

known when a

It

some

With people going selves into the chasm,

Hamma,

was

sects, located in the

made

said to have

is

El

pointed

sixteenth-century Muslim ascetic stopped

end of

thrust the

his

walking stick into the

When he awoke

soft

man

took

tripod,

ground ad-

he should remain

the place to pursue his spiritual fulfillment.

have cropped up

tales to

some

in Christian lore

bit

more

active searching

havior. Apparently,

some

and has sometimes revolved animal be-

holy sites were determined by

beast

was

diately

it

might

for several days.

eventually hunted down,

and the scene of the

for

many

that

seemed

to

decades, a lone

which the sages had devised

to protect her during

The Greeks believed

that the

pneuma, wafting up out of

Even

was none

in the later

pneuma and

in

the at

the

other than the Mother God-

years of the oracle,

when

the spe-

cial

powers of the place were reevaluated and

the

male god Apollo, there remained a sacred precinct near

the

main temple

that

was

attributed to

given over to veneration of the

earth goddess. In Christian times, the oracle at Delphi

was

set

and numerous attempts have been made

the

years to explain

was sacrificed immewas thereafter consid-

partially

it

offering

And so

site.

When

vermin. In other cases, an animal such as a bull

wander where

hopes of harnessing the powers

revealed knowledge

signs as seemingly trivial as the absence of insects or

loose to

in

least— that the ultimate source of both the

rise

dess.

in

that Delphi

chasm. They were also convinced -in the early days

of that faith's most cherished shrines.

around portents that have been discovered

soon became obvious

the form of a vapor, or

in

The discovery of other sacred places has depended on a

it

threatening to hurl them-

prophecies that emerged from Delphi were transmitted

Comparable

and have given

mad and

spells of divine possession.

the next morning, he

this as a sign that

orator Cicero de-

prophetess took her position by a specially designed bronze

discovered that the stick had taken root and sprouted buds.

The holy

a gentle, medita-

a potentially dangerous place. Priestesses were ap-

be haunting the

itself

there to rest for the night. Before going to sleep, the hermit

jacent to a spring.

was not Roman

the

scribed as a "furor."

discovered

is

through the intercession of a saint or a hermit.

mind but what

its

influence.

into disuse,

fell

in the intervening

Many people have

at least

accepted the original explanation of the Greeks,

which attributed the oracle's power

to natural exhalations

ered to be special or hallowed ground. The most famous

of fumes from the earth set free by heavy rains or minor

an animal was the great Hellen-

earthquakes. The great Scottish anthropologist and mythol-

..holyr^ace ever revealed by

:5^&$?p6-at -

ogist Sir

Delphi.

S^yj

spiritual.

impor-

tance of having a center and of carefully orienting the structure relative to that center.

churches

is

The basic plan

in

many

old

a circle or a square set out around a central

marked by

was taken from

a stone called the omphalos. This term

the Greek

word

for

"navel" and carries

connotations of birth and beginnings.

The idea of an omphalos predated by many centuries the building of medieval churches in England,

conveyed several

different

The omphalos was,

first

and

meanings throughout

divine.

As such,

closely related to the idea of creation

attempt on the part of the tie

itself to

has

it

history.

of all, a permanent, immobile point

tween the human and the

rel-

compass. The four

cardinal directions— north, south, east, and

west-were long believed

and

pagan temples. And

on the earth's surface that would serve as a

the landscape.

the heavens,

structures.

point

lifted their

old churches

and towns.

England were constructed on

in rural

were

recent times, archaeologists have noted that there

implications and

Many

the shapes of their buildings

Christian architects preserved the floor plans of the earlier

its fertility.

farmers appear to have

geomancy planned

the center that practitioners of

the remains of

have sprung from

spirit

was always from

plow

The furrow not only expressed

ownership but magically "fixed" the

In

it

to

that induced people to place enclosures

their sacred places.

thereby ensured

to

Isles,

Ages

the Middle

It

the sources of

link beit

was

and was an

human community to life and energy. An

omphalos also marked a building as a sanctu-

ary— a place of peace and organization. stone, but tree.

it

could also be a

Whatever

its

pillar,

chaos.

wooden

was

usually a

pole, or

even a

form, the omphalos conveyed the stability

of a culture and the order that It

a

It

was more than

a

humans had wrought

mere

out of

act of anger, therefore,

when Charlemagne chopped down the Saxons' omphalos pole, which was known to that people as the Irminsul. The conqueror was delivering an unambiguous sign that the old order was gone forever. For centuries, geomantic principles such as building

around centers and aligning

were

at the heart of all city

to the points of the

compass

planning as people came togeth-

er in ever-larger settlements. The Egyptian hieroglyph signi-

marked by different

its

diversity, the quarters of the Ideal City

Egyptian belief

many

were

from one to the next. Ideas very similar to

seem

to

this

have sprung up independently

in

parts of the world. Four-part designs are the funda-

mental planning schemes

for cities as diverse

as Teotihua-

can, Baghdad, Winchester, Washington, D.C., and Beijing. In the

Chinese

capital, the

emperor was ensconced

at the

center in the Forbidden City, site of the omphalos. Beyond the royal enclave

surrounded by the

was

the secular

city,

civilized provinces

which

in turn

and beyond

was

that the

areas as yet entirely untamed.

equal parts.

The peculiarly Chinese form of geomancy known as

to represent the Egyptian belief that a city

feng shui that helped give shape to Beijing has had a pro-

fying the Ideal City

The symbol came

was a microcosm of the earth, which in turn was a microcosm of the entire universe. And just as the earth was

was a

circle divided in four

found and durable impact on China. Feng shui embodies a

complex melange of traditions.

It

religious, philosophical,

and mystical

incorporates astrology, analogy, ancestor wor-

ship, esoteric

symbols such as the White Tiger and the

Green Dragon, and some highly practical procedures

town planning and community hygiene, as well as to the elusive "breath" of nature,

as ch 7, or

qi.

which

is

for

attention

also referred to

Winding a sinuous path across mountains and valleys, the Great Wail of China a testament to the efficacy offeng shui, the ancient Chinese art of bringing human

(left) is

structures into

harmony with

their natural surroundings.

Feng shui principles also were invoked in planning the Bank of China's seventy-story skyscraper in Hong Kong (below). The building is shielded from the influences of its urban surroundings by sloping glass walls

and by pools and leafy groves

at its base.

Over the centuries, feng shui enabled the people of China to ensure that their

empire, which

was and

is

the

opened

in the

technological progress;

it

impediment

was

And

it

is

to accept

dampened

rant's physical layout

recommendations Kao agreed

innovations such as railroads

specific

improving the

for

building,

whole— feng

gan

been an enormous

recent years, a retired Chinese-

crew

since,

to

at the center of the

and within weeks business be-

to improve. Mr. K's, as the place

called,

to China.

to hire a construction

new doorway

people are convinced that — on the

In

and issued

building's feng shui. At Lin Yun's behest,

their readiness

build a

boon

a prac-

The professor imme-

diately set about analyzing the restau-

for

and modern highways. But numerous shui has

he arranged

Hong Kong, who was

titioner of feng shui.

preserving the natural shape of the land

has sometimes

this despite enthusiastic re-

by Lin Yun, a Chinese language

scholar from

certainly true

concern of the Chinese people

extremely slow

at first

to attract. In frustration,

for a visit

nation's Cultural Revolution

of the late 1960s.

build— and

aged

to

particularly

backward thinking during the

decried as

Communist that the

to

restaurant in February

was

views from the few customers Kao man-

the observance of feng

shui has represented an

new

a

1983, business

most visually pleasing. There have

when

the propri-

and around Washington, DC. When Kao

world, has also always remained one of

been times

is

etor of several successful businesses in

one of the

most highly populated landscapes

who

taurateur johnny Kao,

is

has done a thriving trade ever

and Johnny Kao now

insists that a

American medical doctor, whose west-

feng shui consultation be part of the plan-

ernized training had led him to eschew

ning process for

all

that

even vaguely smacked of supersti-

tion,

undertook a serious study of the

ditional art of

to advise his California

to

improve

adjustments ings.

Kao's experience

their luck

planners,

how

by making minor

traction lies

tory as

"It

works," was

he could say. He was not alone terest in this traditional art.

peror,

agency

is

the Board of Rites.

currently enjoying a substantial revival in the United States

and Western Europe.

One

an

more

official

their teachings

all

self-professed beneficiary of the old magic

who have

in

city

taken at-

feng shui's long his-

"science" in China. For

were

consulted as a matter of public policy and

in his in-

Feng shui

architects

several centuries, feng shui experts

the source of the

magic's efficacy, the doctor admitted that

he did not have a clue.

and

up the study of Oriental geomancy, the

to their physical surround-

When asked about

an example of

the benefit of individuals. For the growing

clinic

neighbors on

is

band of Western environmentalists,

a steadfast propo-

nent of feng shui and established a

his business ventures.

the application of feng shui principles for

tra-

Chinese geomancy. He

wound up becoming

all

to is

35

in

The sole

established a governmental

what was then Peking responsibility of this

ensure that the feng shui perspective was

count

res-

who

were promoted by the em-

in all

public-works projects.

called

body was

taken into ac-

Ley lines mapped by Alfred Watkins (inset) include one that leads to Saint Peter's Church in Hereford, England. Believed by some to follow the earth's lines offorce, the leys cross the sites of several Christian churches built over the ruins of pagan temples.

The Chinese geomancy

is

not, for the

acterized by exotic prescripts or beliefs.

mundane

with the

plant trees, offices (see

the earth

how

It

most

that guided funerary practices

part, char-

has more to do

to design livable interiors for

By the time of the Sung dynasty, which lasted from

homes and

Chinese

to

960

is

seem

to

its

revealed

when

would

be a generally upbeat and hopeful philosophy, but

make

in building

homes, laying out

into the countryside

have a direct

effect

is

named

Ernest Eitel wrote a book

that brought the Chinese

intimate part of daily

Sung dynasty.

Its

upon the whole of

that the Chinese looked

became

as a thousand years ago, dur-

much

hands should be fashioned

in

shapes of dragons and

one of the most potent of the to

has long been held true that invisible forces giving

shape

and

rise

an individual's fortunes was the continuing influence of

fall

ideas-they were

fluence over the land

from

proper sites for the burial of ancestors. Once such sites

mancers expected

were

spiritual

served for

in

conducting the actual burials.

It

was

to

be ob-

heads pointing

male

to the north

-a

Where such

institution-

and were exercised as a matter of custom

in funerals.

For example, during the

marked by scholarship and

AD

Han dynasty, an era centi,

ntrol

that

and

mal flow of

And

qi,

codified,

and

is

to

power and

produce the

is

to the teachings of this

a distinct difficulty in trying to in-

mainstream Western perspective, should be explainable

the rules

for

36

opti-

most Westerners

and the cosmic

breath with a scientific understanding of nature.

that ex-

outward

the ever-present spirit of the earth.

tegrate concepts such as the earthly qi

was

or

lines crossed, the geo-

therein lies the problem for

system. There

220, the principles of feng shui

were systematically collected and

lines of force

to find places of particular

who have been exposed became

in the

resonance.

The

direction associated with the

Before long, such considerations

tended from 207 BC to

and emitting

ultimate goal of feng shui

principle.

alized

their extremities.

the practice,

example, to lay the bodies of the deceased with their

everywhere

more than mere symbols

living geological beings, exerting their in-

the Chinese already attached great importance to finding

were detailed prescriptions

it

human

of their own. The

life

tigers discernible

of the land were

that person's ancestors. Centuries before the birth of Christ,

located, there

this idealistic vision,

response to the forms and

ancestor worship.

it

their country as

forces of nature. In the eyes of the geomancers, moreover,

further,

the natural landscapes took on a

China,

had

affected

It

the goal that everything set in place by

however, to one of the most ancient of Chinese practicesIn

China.

The influence of feng shui had become so pervasive

on the fortunes of

roots stretch back

to the at-

and flower arranging.

believed to have emerged as a full-blown little

geomancy

life in

one great sacred landscape. Within

methodology perhaps as ing the

By the nineteenth century,

everything from funerals and weddings to road construction

people

the local population

Feng shui

overall order of

tention of people in the Western world, the philosophy

and carving roads

cities,

a British missionary

become an

laws at the root of

their discipline. In their view, the decisions that

natural objects.

in

on feng shui

feng shui devotees are also quick to point out that there are risks involved in ignoring the natural

on the

nature and sought meaning in the numerical proportions

women

perfection. This

were several discernible branches of feng

of which emphasized subtle concerns about the

natural landscape. Others focused

hands of human be-

on the part of ordinary men and

required to bring nature to

126, there

1

some

twofold breath and searched for mythological shapes in the

and sky were created by the great forces of the

ings. Daily activity

to

shui,

tradition,

two breaths— by the yin and yang, the inhalation and the exhalation, the male and female principles-but the work of creation can be completed only by the

to the dwell-

ings of the living as well.

decisions of day-to-day living-where to

pages 113-117). According

were extended

in

all

From

the

forces or energies

terms of the laws of physics. But

admirers of feng shui,

this is

not a great concern. For

mXSi

nm&GcH

wind and water,

that

do indeed lend themselves

ley lines

to descrip-

tion by scientists. Yet there are other influences,

some

new

For nearly two decades, the process of charting

them, there are certain forces, such as the eroding power of

was

a passionate pursuit for scattered groups of

and hobbyists. They corresponded,

freethinking historians

just

as potent in giving shape to the land, that are not so easily

held meetings, and even formed an international alliance of

And every form of power or energy

sorts, called the

from the traditional feng shui perspective,

explained.

that affects the earth

must be

they identified ran for

many ways,

the art of feng shui

is

analogous

practice of acupuncture, a system that arose from the

basic tenets

and values.

pists actively interfere

ergy through the

result,

to the

same

sites of earlier

human body

an

in

effort to bring for

them

body of the

not

into

ot natural electrical

lines

or traders,

practical people

unknown.

In

paths or roads.

crust of the earth -has

been attached

who have

who

people

was

earth's energy

by a Welsh businessman named

Alfred Watkins.

Watkins was an amateur student of history and an av-

number

of

but

somehow sense

particularly strong.

England and Wales, he arrived at the conclusion that

in the

Roman landmarks

had been purposely aligned

discovered in

rows

dead

borrowing the old Saxon term

name for a

has

led,

its

among

many

or a

implications too important to

ig-

to

astronomers and historians search energy, trying to puzzle out the

S(

For

and Alfred Watkins's theory

planet takes- literally -a

some

sites.

of course very difficult to prove,

lor signs of the elusive

the 1920s had arrived at similai conclu

in

situ-

other things, to a renewed interest

cleared strip of land. Apparently, several other Europeans of

siasm

where

other sites -investigators ranging from

dowsers and psychics

"ley" to his

which wa

hand by the majority of historians- was greeted with

the places

They may have

sacred places of the past. At the great shrines of the

Avebury, and

straight

meadow,

It

is

modern-

European megalith builders-at Newgrange, Stonehenge,

in the British Isles

that ran

across the countryside. He applied the

many

supporters find

its

nore.

finding

was

Such a hypothesis

years traveling through the outlying regions of western

ot the pre

engineer

monuments were much

closely attuned to the forces of nature than

ated their structures on such high-energy

explorei of ancient sites. After spending a

to

studied the subject hold

constructed prehistoric

day builders and could

id

wandering merchants

earth's natural telluric energy. According to this theory, the

cred by cultures long since vanished The idea of ley lines in 1921

to

the view that Watkins's tracks actually trace the channels of

to the theory of ley

more

proposed

this

others crossed precipitous terrain where

very ancient times and connecting the sites once held sa-

first

agreement on

would never have attempted

Nowadays, some

coursing through the

These are hypothetical tracks or paths dating from

lines

many

to

is

in

It

and could have been of use

tions

energy-a kind

were

was pointed out that while some of the ran between more or less obvious destina-

and acupuncture are mostly foreign

current that

ley enthusiasts

all

issue.

land.

recent years, a comparable notion of telluric

that the ley lines sim-

ply

achieving the

the Western perspective, they are not entirely

was

Alfredmarked the trading routes of early times, but

Although the mystical currents of energy that are so integral to feng shui

pagan temples. Watkins's theory

acupuncture, doctors or thera-

In

except that the harmony occurs within a build-

ing or over the

miles and passed through eight

more presumed holy places— through burial mounds, monoliths, sacred groves, and old churches built on the

with the flow of various sorts of en-

harmony. Feng shui provides guidelines

same

many

of the lines

or

treated as a whole. In

Some

Old Straight Track Club.

nthu-

hemes of

the

quarters.

the ancients for harnessing the earth's forces.

many others,

the search for contact with the spirit of the

magic power

up the physical world 38

more down-to-earth form, as they elements that make

in the individual

Living in (he land of flie

Gods

itraditionally, the American Indian never even considers the notion "that he is independent of the earth, that he can be severed from it and remain whole," wrote N. Scott Momaday, himself a Kiowa. "The earth is sacred. ... It is a living entity ... he is bound to the earth forever in his spirit." When Native Americans speak of the sacred earth, they mean more than just soil and rocks. Their concept of the hallowed land includes plants, animals, the sky with its sun and stars, as well as weather phenomena. In this world-view, humans must not disturb the balance of the elements or disorder will result.

And

yet there

than even

this

is

more

to the Indian belief in the earth's

power

age-old message. Native Americans have long held

certain places to be especially holy, suffused with a mystical, spir-

power. The Hopi Indians say these spots are energized by a spirit named Palongawhoya beating on a drum; the vibrations of his drumbeats surface most noticeably at the holy itually tangible

One area

San Francisco Peaks, revered by both Hopi and Navajo, was revealed in a geological study to have a physically tangible special energy: an exceptionally strong telluric places.

in Arizona's

current, the electrical flow through the earth's surface generated

by the planet's magnetic field. A possible explanation is that rocks in the area have unusually low electrical resistance. Nowhere are Native American sacred places more spectacular than in the Southwest. There the lives and souls of the region's Indians have long been intricately connected to formidably beautiful landmarks like the ones on the following pages.

39

Wind-Carved

Towers of ftie

Navajo

Spiri(§

B

Fecause its towering wind-carved buttes resem-

man-made

ble

structures,

European- Americans

named

this stark

and

Monument Valley. The Navajo, who have known it longer and beautiful place

far

more

intimately, call

Land of Room Enough and Time Enough. it

In their tradition,

the

vast expanse of flatlands

and tall stone formations, which straddles the UtahArizona border,

unpopulated

is

not the

territory

it

appears. The Navajo say that

each of the buttes

occupied by

its

own

is

dis-

tinct spirit and that the whole valley is sacred ground. Navajo shamans still say prayers and leave

offerings at the formations

of particular spirits they

wish to appease or whose assistance they seek.

40

41

The Hying Rock Thai Rescued an

Indian Tribe

fl dark volcano-spewed mass worn into its present shape by winds,

Mexico's Ship Rock

New was

named by EuropeanAmericans for its resemso

blance to a sailing vesse

But the Navajo

call

the

1,400-foot formation Tse

bit'a'i-rock with wings.

They say their ancestors once sought refuge from attacking enemies atop the rock, which at that time

was from

located its

When

some

distance

present position.

the Indians prayed

for deliverance, declare the

Navajo, the rock suddenly

sprouted wings and flew across the sky, carrying the tribe to safety at the

place where

it

now

stands.

Sacral Lair of flic

Spider Woman

Soaring 800 feet above the floor of Arizona's Can-

yon de

Chelly, Spider

Rock— the formation

at far

right— is considered by the

home of Woman. They say

Hopi to be the Spider

she helped create them

and assisted

their emergence into the fourth

world, the last existence

before an

Armageddon-

like

purging that will lead

to a

new

cycle of worlds.

The Navajo call the prominence at left in this picture Speaking Rock because of

its

mouthlike

They sometimes threaten misbehaving cleft.

children that Speaking

names Woman, who snatch them away and

Rock

will tell their

to Spider will

leave them

on top of Spi-

der Rock forever.

43

The Waler§

an Enchanted

oi

Canyon

Hlavasu Canyon, with cascading

falls

its

and lush

vegetation, provides a startling contrast to the rest of the arid

Grand

Canyon. The Havasupai Indians,

who

trace their

ancestry to the clairvoyant

shamans of the Colorado River Yuman, have inhabcentu-

ited this oasis for ries,

using the water to

irrigate their little

patches

of vegetables and

fruits.

They consider the canyon, and especially the springs that feed the creek and falls,

ly

to be sacred, regular-

making

offerings of

tobacco, peaches, or corn.

The Havasupai say

that

the canyon walls used to

close in and crush anyone

passing through. tells

One

who went

into the

canyon

looking for reeds to

arrows.

began they

story

of two young boys

When

to close

make

the canyon

on them,

wedged two long

juniper logs

between the

walls- which, the Havasupai claim, have been held

open ever

since.

e-

w®

^ mA .i-ttit

Jfif-

Bringing Turquoise to ftielaos Fount of LUe

I he

frigid,

turquoise water

of Blue Lake, high in

Mexico's

north.

Sangre de Cristo Mountains

is

believed by the

Taos Indians to be the source of all life and the final resting

place for their

souls. In 1906, the lake

and surrounding lands were taken from the tribe by the U.S. government and made part of Carson National Forest. In 1971,

decades of disruption and desecration, the sacred lake and 48,000 acres of wilderness were returned to Taos Pueblo ownership -and by some after

accounts

An

just in time.

Indian legend says that

if

the Taos people should

"someday be forced

to

leave their homes, or

they should by their

if

own

accord give up their pueblo

and

their land,

then

the world will end/' Each :he Indians

make

pilgrimages to the lake, tossing in bits of precious

turquoise as offerings to the sacred

N^

j* k

n

*

\

M

The Rainbow Bridge Thai Turned fo Stone

Rainbow

Bridge, at 309

feet the highest natural

arch

in

the world,

the focus of a

became

whole

reli-

The Navajo say the bridge was formed when a gion.

spirit

heard the prayer of

another supernatural being,

who was

trapped by a

He hurled down a rainbow, and as the flood.

threatened across

spirit

raced

to safety,

it

it

turned to stone beneath his feet

For centuries,

adherents of the Rainbow religion trekked to the

make offerings when the Glen Canyon Dam made bridge to

and

pray. But

the once remote site easily

accessible by boat,

came

it

be-

too crowded with

tourists for the

Navajo

worshipers, and the practice

faded away-although

the faith

may

still

exist.

48

A Window at toe Center of

toe World

Ihis stone formation with a hole in

its

center

was

Tseghahodzani— perforated rock— by the

called

Navajo. But

its

location

near Winslow, Arizona,

was known as

Ni"alnii'gi

(earth's center).

A

spring

beneath the rock was one of four sources of water used in the waterway ceremony, performed to secure abundant rain. In 1936, the federal

government chose this site for its Navajo Central Agency. The bureaucrats noting that apart from constructing a radio station,

ing,

administration build-

employee residences,

and a golf course, "nothing further was done to alter the native

continued to Ni "alnii'gi.

scenery" —

call

When

ajo objected, the

was Window

nity

the place the Nav-

commu-

rechristened

Rock.

/>r

49

CHAPTER 2

and Water

Earth, Air, Fire,

hen

psychiatrist Carl Jung

ished friend

was

a rock.

was growing up

most cher-

in Switzerland, his

The seven-year-old Jung, who along with Sigmund

Freud would eventually help establish the practice of psychoanalysis, dis-

covered an agreeable spot on a particular boulder

home and

whiled away the hours there,

in the

garden of his family

childhood reveries.

lost in

A

lonely,

introspective youngster, he developed such a strong affinity for this place for

"my

stone," as he called

it

would sometimes

affectionately— that he

have a hard time remembering whether he was the person

was

boulder or he

A few wooden

years

the boulder himself

while

later,

ruler into the

still

in

and someone was

sitting

on the

on him.

sitting

grade school, Jung carved the end of a

shape of a human

He then found a smooth,

figure.

oblong black stone that had washed up on a bank of the Rhine, and he painted

man,

with secret symbols and bundled

it

an old pencil box.

into

place he

was forbidden

he would

slip

up

to

In

it,

together with the

little

boyish fashion, he hid the box in the attic—

go— and

told

no one of

his secret. Occasionally,

and he came

to the attic to visit the toys,

to equate the

painted stone with his well-loved boulder in the garden. Even

could not be near his hidden treasures, he isfaction in simply

carved

felt

when he

a deep and inexplicable sat-

remembering them. Their memory,

it

seems, helped him

cope with the anxieties of a troubled childhood. In his

autobiography, published more than seventy years

recalled the solace he derived from the

little

wooden man and

later,

Jung

the magic

all difficult situations," he wrote, "whenever had done somewrong or my feelings had been hurt ... thought of my carefully bedded-down and wrapped-up manikin and his smooth, prettily colored

stone. "In

1

thing

I

stone." Only bols, did

much

later,

as an adult doing research on the

power of sym-

he learn that Australian Aborigines and other primitive peoples

kept similar "soul stones," or churingas, as their secret talismans. With this in

mind, Jung developed a theory that the figure he had carved as a boy had

served him as a kaabir, which that the

is

a sort of personal deity.

He also guessed

stom he had taken from the river had infused his handmade, per-

»nal deity

with a spark of the cosmic

life

force.

Jung's childhood fixation on his rock, his kaabir, and

would

his painted stone

He came

greatly influence his later theories.

human

to believe that all

were connected by a or spiritus

collective

mundi— that

beings, living

unconscious-a world

spirit,

arose from the earth. Rocks, water,

and other physical components of the earth were,

trees,

communicate with the world

For Jung, his

spirit.

an

thy for the things of nature reflected

the earth's

life

He believed

force.

in

own empa-

instinctual sensitiv-

that

all

people were

capable of such feelings, and he considered them an important part of the

miss the mark.

All of the

der suitable conditions of heat and pressure, assume forms

corresponding to the Aristotelian elements. ple, usually exists it

like

the

air.

Iron, for

exam-

as a solid-not unlike the soil of the earth.

can also become a molten

But

liquid like

water or a gas

Moreover, locked into every atom of iron

fire.

therefore, Aristotle's four basic elements

and the

sky. Later religions

worshiped

different

physical states that iron

endured and prompted a succession of theories about the

fire,

structure of earth

and

its

explanations of this sort

parts.

was

One

of the

most enduring

put forth in the fourth century

the Greek philosopher Aristotle. All matter, he de-

clared with finality,

was composed

four basic elements: earth,

air, fire,

know that themselves made up

Today, scientists

ments are

nitely smaller building

structures.

and water.

Aristotle's ele

of

blocks called

atoms, which arrange themselves

complex

of varying proportions of

They

al-

so realize that each individ-

atom comprises

dizzying variety of sub-

a

infi-

More

In a sense,

all

other materials in na-

important, the special significance of earth,

and water was taken as gospel

scientists, philosophers,

can

sum up all the can assume, and they sum up as

well the range of possibilities for ture.

an

is

be thought of as the rough equivalent of

gods, but interest in the forces that had shaped the planet

ual

elements known to modern science can, un-

human

these matters. The earliest

in

it

the workings of nature.

worshiped earth deities- most often characterized

of the land

in

interpreted broadly enough, in fact,

provides a sort of intuitively pleasing explanation for

still

that energy

as female— who regulated the visible and invisible workings

BC by

If it is

elements—

2,000 years— did not entirely

for nearly

enormous amount of nuclear energy, and

is

on Jung's views

societies

psychic makeup.

Aristotle's theory of the four

a great deal of historical evidence that sheds

There light

human

and quarks. Yet which held sway

enabled humankind to

his view, the points of contact that

ity to

and dead,

atomic particles with odd names such as protons, leptons,

for

and common

many

people

air,

centuries by alike.

And

in

the course of that time, each of the four Aristotelian ele-

ments came energy or

to

be seen as a manifestation of the earth's

spirit.

None

of the other three elements has been the object of quite so

much

reverence and superstition as

has the earth. Primitive societies worshiped mother earth not only as a

fecund provider and nurturer

whose powers were observable in natural things but also as a living spirit in-

habiting specific earthly

From

locations.

the beginning, rocks of

looked upon as favored resting places for the earth. Consequently, rocks large

with

all

spirit

of the

even

living things,

to

differ-

and everlasting.

wept nor

It

prise. Gradually,

urban complexes were established

locations that had

begun as purely

over to the fact that the center-marking stones were

human imagination. For the who make up approximately

millions of

often placed beneath the earth in caves. Caverns, rock

one-fifth of

sures,

Mecca

mountains,

is in fact

a mete-

represented a darker side of those

spent remains of an asteroid that flamed through

Even before people learned

holds that the stone

was

was given by

gods and

Allah to Abra-

Muslims. Islamic tradition also

all

part of the

now

rests,

framed

Muslims

toward Mecca and the Ka'ba every devout follower of

on a pilgrimage, or

hajj.

all

countless

over the globe turn

to pray, but

Muhammad

it

is

the

dream of

to journey to

The culmination of a

shelter.

wee

earth goddess

to

lore that

touch or kiss the black stone According to the

surrounds the great

worn smooth by have kissed

it,

as

thirteen centuries

relic,

its

Muhammad

is

said to have

who

suggests that ing

it

marks not only the center of

beyond

their usefulness as ready-

from ancient times

gateways

made

to a

lower kingdom

to this

in

which the

her home.

an old legend passed along by

ago

the eyes of Muslims,

far

religions,

Superstition Mountains, east of Phoenix, partly because of

done some

The black stone has become the Islamic omphalos:

Many

The Apache Indians of Arizona regard as sacred the

surface has been

the lips of the millions of believers

to

rivals for

have perpetuated the belief that the subterranean

one of the two million or so pilgrims who is

animals that were their

to

were invested with a mystical

vaults

year

caves played an

when Homo sapiens developed

day,

Mecca each

to their

shelter within the earth. But

importance that went

walk

names

to give

human development. They were home generations of early humanoids who learned

seven times around the Ka'ba, and the ambition of every visit

energies, caves

forces centered in

a spiritual awareness, caves

made

Mecca

hajj is to

fertile

same

in

evict the fierce four-legged

in

southeastern corner of the Ka'ba.

Five times each day,

grandeur, were viewed

to establish patterns of worship,

important role

house of worship

first

dedicated to a single God. The treasure

fis-

mythol-

the underworld.

atmosphere thousands of years ago. The Islamic

religion teaches that the stone

in

car-

force of the earth. While

life

in their distant sunlit

as natural symbols of the earth's

Saudi Arabia. Eight

in

and grottoes have always been associated

ogy and folklore with the

no object on earth

is

diameter, the sacred black stone

silver, in the

religious sites. In

cases, therefore, sacred stones served as the seeds of ur-

a smallish black rock enshrined in

a sanctuary called the Ka'ba at

ham, the patriarch of

in

some

ries

more sacred than

the earth's

complex of tem-

have exercised great power

the world's population, there

orite, the

germinated

The analogy between omphalos stones and seeds

Muslims

in

first cities

civilization.

particular stones

over the

inches

of early societies, the

expanded and attracted more and more secular enter-

bled.

Some

Mecca goes well

ban

flesh

not: solid, unyielding,

table

in

was everything and-to all appearances-immuwas utterly reliable, and it neither

so elementally as rock. Stone

was

one

ticular cult or religion flourished, its central

ples

be of the earth

human

the

from sanctuaries built at the site of an omphalos. As a par-

and sand were part of the earth's

dirt

were never considered

number

In a

ent races and cultures. Trees and plants, animals and other

inventory, but they

like

beyond their function as religious or ceremonial landmarks.

and small were invested

magic powers by the people of many

sorts of

tance of omphalos stones

kinds were

all

down

cave

In

the

let

world but also the gate of heaven The historical impor-

is

somewhere

their forebears.

in that hilly terrain is

to the interior of the earth.

pass.

And

to this

snake that

will

the winds spewing up from

the underworld through this hole are 52

a cave lead-

The entrance

said to be guarded by a nine-headed

no human being

The story

presumed

to

be the

Seeking to placate the of Lake Barombi Mb ° u> Cameroon, members of a secret Bantu soaety prepare an offering of chicken blood spirits

Many villagers attribute

/M water-related troubles-including the pen odic spread of deadly lake-water gases-to the

anger ofMammy

Water

"spirit living in the lake

who

erected the great stone monoliths

cause of the severe dust storms that bedevil the Indian

cient builders

lands from time to time.

worked with rock because

Early Greek sites in

Many

hand-or so

in or

near caves, whose dark depths

reinforced the impression of a holy

and powerful

place.

But

One

seems

it

henge, at

descent to confront the earth goddess

in

Stonehenge

shells

at Eleusis, not far

from the great

of Athens. This ancient settlement the

renowned Eleusinian

was

writers as

they were

ergies of the underworld

At the heart of the

men and women. Beginning

and

in the sixth

is

stratum of stone eroded,

this

for the

filled If

with

tion that the slabs

to mortal

the builders

were

The immense

century BC, the

circles of

throughout

addition to marking the center of the universe and

ing

human

beings

come

to

in

and mortal realms in

terms with their place

and

is likely

it

that

them

to use in their temples.

stand mute on the Salisbury Plain, attest to the

Similar but smaller stone structures are scattered

and wonder.

have performed many other roles

still

tools,

stones that the Druids erected, and

source of

the divine

fairly straight

were imbued with a special power, and right to put

strength of this conviction.

where

and

awe by the great blocks that nature was a certain logic to the assump-

omphalos at Eleusis came to embody for the Greeks their most profound feeling for the earth as the the

coincide, stones

split

so, there

And

staking out the places

it

stoneworkers of old to achieve with

that

In

which

was part of the seabed. In some of much harder rock formed over

Eleusinian mysteries flourished for nearly a thousand years.

all fertility

Plain in

mostly chalk, a soft limestone

rudimentary bone and stone

had formed.

to bring together the en-

and the regions known

situated

is

been impossible

rites cele-

called the Plutonion,

far be-

edges and faces. The shapes of these slabs would have

goddess of agriculture and

fruitfulness.

reasons that went

cracked to form giant angular blocks with

Roman

their

was a cave, an omphalos stone that was said

for

of the remains of countless tiny seashells. The

and as

brated at Eleusis were performed in honor of Demeter, the

Eleusinian sanctuary

instead.

were deposited as sediment during the thousands of

the chalk,

mysteries, which were

Homer, Plutarch, and Sophocles. The

monument

reasoning goes— the

were chosen

places, however, a layer

city

the site of

described by such luminous Greek and

many

other parts of Britain and France. Brittany

northern France, where the Celtic people lived several

millennia ago,

is littered

with almost 5,000 such megaliths.

Some of them are solitary upright spires called menhirsthe name is a combination of the old Breton words men

helpin the

world. The giant upright slabs of rock at Stonehenge and

meaning "stone" and

other megalithic sites

dence that the menhirs were very carefully situated

in Britain

and France were

originally

enormous astronomical tools for predicting the and fall equinoxes. They helped ancient peoples

parts of

spring

mark

the

when

the sun

changes of the seasons and

changed course

The argument

is

the

sometimes put

,

of megalith

moments

tat

hir

meaning "long." There

is

evi-

to

achieve particular spiritual or mystical goals. Another type is

vertical stones

on word

thehea\

ii:

at

clear that the great slabs of rock used in Stone-

years in which the plain

of the most important religious centers for the

Greeks was

this line of

least,

composed

her cave at Tro-

phonious could never hope to smile again.

One

the only material they had

The underpinning of the great Salisbury

ligious site near

Boeotia.

was

yond mere convenience.

was established at Trophonious, an old reMount Helicon in the Greek district of According to legend, anyone who made the dread-

influential oracle

ful

it

aluminum, or concrete been ready

builders would have probably chosen one of them

of the oracles, including the famous one at

were enshrined

Had

available.

which oracles allegedly passed along the wisdom of

the gods. Delphi,

and Roman settlements grew up around

steel,

the an-

burial

54

the dolmen, which consists of

two or more

crossed by a horizontal slab. Dol

is

the Bret-

The dolmens apparently served as places and were intended not only to protect the for "table."

According to Polynesian tradition, the spiral tattoos on the face of this Maori tribesman will ensure him safe passage to the world of the dead. After death, the islanders believe, a fearsome hag eats the spirals and thereby frees the soul from the body. If she finds no such tattoos, she will eat the eyeballs instead.

V

•y 56

Framed by a rectangle of boulders on a field of white stones, this austere shrine in Takihara, Japan, is intended to bring

Shinto worshipers closer to their dead and to the nature gods they call kami. In Shinto belief, the kami include all manner of natural things and phenomena, ranging from the sun and the moon to animals and plants, thunder, winds, earthquakes, and ordinary rocks.

physical remains but also to provide shelter for the souls

of the departed.

Many

secrets

still

haunt Brittany's ancient dolmens,

which date back thousands of years before the Christian era began, but there

is

nothing dated about the practice of

planting vertical stones for spiritual purposes. Less than a

few hours' drive from the celebrated megalithic ruins Carnac stretches the coast of Normandy. There,

in

at

gleaming

rows, stand forests of stark crosses marking the tombs of

thousands of soldiers

who

lost their lives

during the Allied

invasion of France in 1944. Like the enduring Celtic dol-

mens

of Brittany, these

modern tombstones were

shaped from stone. They were intended guardians of the

spirits

of people

lovingly

to stand forever as

whose bodies had been

returned to earth.

Stones with alleged special powers have been put to

more prosaic uses as were believed Britain,

to

well.

Rocks with natural holes

be magical

in

many

in

them

different cultures. In

such stones or pebbles were known variously as

hag stones, witch stones, and mare stones. A holed rock suspended over a bed was believed from witchcraft and to ward

and night sweats. door,

it

was

tied to a

If

to protect

off nightmares,

the stone

the front

believed to keep evil spirits out of the house;

door key,

it

worked together with

and boulders marked by natural

in

to larger rocks

holes. In the French village

of Fouvent-le-Haut, parents pass their

through the opening

the iron in the

luck.

Even stronger magic was attributed

newborn babies

such a stone, and they believe that

the ritual ensures happiness for the children

against evil spells.

Some

womb,

and guards

of the early inhabitants of India

looked upon stones with holes

the

owners

rheumatism,

was hung behind

key to provide a powerful antidote to bad

yoni, or

its

in

them as symbols of

the

of the world. In their view, the act of passing

body through such a hole was

like a

prayer for regener-

ation according to a great feminine principle. In Cornwall,

England, the so-called Crick or Creeping Stone ated with

more down-to-earth concerns.

back pains believed that they could cure 57

was

associ-

Sufferers with

their

lumbago

if

mend

themselves. Supporters of

they crawled nine times through the hole in this stone, al-

the internal organs to

ways with

view speak of clay as the "living earth" and believe that

their faces to the sun.

Stones have also been associated with

many

regions of the world.

Women

in

power

fertility in

Even

southern India, for

is

in

derived from the living planet that

is its

this its

source.

small amounts, they claim, clay retains the potent

example, believed that they could induce conception by

healing energy imparted to

rubbing against certain holy stones that they associated

earth as a whole.

by the magnetic force of the

it

with their ancestors. Anthropologists have noted similar practices occurring

And

among

To

Australian Aborigines, California

New Guinea and

as late as the 1880s-at the height of the supposedly

curatives had to do with the shapes of the earth's conti-

strip to the buff

nents.

ception, this bizarre ritual

was

carried out in the

company

pharmacopoeia of

place for such

Taken

mundane

internally or

folk

curatives as clay,

way

physical complaints.

worms,

entery,

been prescribed It

has factored

The

In

vitamin

and other minerals

rolled into tiny balls, baked,

mous

the

ologist

were circulated extensively

scientist

was

willing to

named

Alfred

gener called

this

word meaning

And

This

was

go out on a limb

1912 a

in

clay continues to attract proponents

apart.

that

all

the earth's

a vast supercontinent.

and he suggested

ern physicians They believe that

theory of "continental

known

to

German meteor-

enormous body of land Pangaea,

"all earth,"

riod of millions of years, the

among modern Westthe substance somehow

in

Wegener proposed

landmasses were once joined

the fa-

Europe.

in

fossils.

two hemispheres may have once been continuous, but

defend such a radical idea. Then

pills

writings

fact.

question hung unanswered for more than 300

no reputable

essential

eleventh-century Arab "prince of doctors," Avicenna,

whose

together as neatly

tantalizing evidence that the continents located in

and gulped down

among them

fit

have similar rock formations and

The effectiveness of using clay as a medicine was widely proclaimed by early physicians,

the shape of South

ered that the eastern and western hemispheres

treatment of dys-

widely scattered areas of the world

today, clay containing iron is

in the

if

years. In the nineteenth century, scientists discov-

wide range of

ulcers, constipation, cholera, carbuncles,

burns, and arthritis

to health

for a

two continents

of explaining this curious

combi-

nation with other ingredients such as lemon juice, vinegar, or mustard, clay has

produce reasonably accu-

as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Bacon, of course, had no

mud, and sand. in

to

and placed against an outline of

tilted slightly

the African coast, the

fertil-

medicine has long found a

used as a poultice, sometimes

advanced

puzzling observation. He noticed thai

America was

addition to stones promoting good health and

In

sufficiently

the art of cartography had

maps, the English philosopher Francis Bacon made a

rate

of the couple's relatives.

the

As long ago as 1620, when

become

and dash around a reputedly enchanted

stone near Carnac in northwestern France. To ensure con-

like

one of the most perplexing

enigmas regarding the planet that provides these natural

and the peoples of

prudish Victorian era -childless husbands and wives would

ity,

the scientists of earlier times,

Madagascar.

Indians,

We-

a Greek

that over a pe-

continents had drifted

Most geologists dismissed out of hand Wegener's drift."

In part,

they demurred be-

functions as a strong positive element in flushing from the

cause Wegener was a meteorologist rather than one of their

body

own

there

toxic is

elements that emit negath

e radiations

a paucity of clear scientific

these claims, there

seems

to

does have certain therapeutic

be

little

effects.

idence

Although support of

in

doubt that the

mud

catal

.

I

in

movement

his theory right

helping

up

to ac-

Wegener clung

to

in 1930.

And over

would accumulate

to vindi-

to the time of his

the next thirty years, evidence 68

mechanism

of landmasses.

Despite criticism and even ridicule,

Us modern champi-

ons assert that clay acts as a stimulant or

But they also could see no feasible

count for such a

death

Among

cate his confidence in the theory.

made during that a

was

that period

glow

the discoveries

the astonishing realization

mountain range 46,000 miles long runs mid-ocean

showed

collected by research ships, meanwhile,

ocean bottom

whistling, or screeching.

scientists

some

than

the continents.

Hess and oth-

came

known

be

to

more,

as plate tectonics. According to

for

be-

may

major tremor the ground

may be

it

As

rises

it

and

Some

have proposed

biblical scholars

posed of slightly

of the Red Sea that enabled

in turn,

are

hardened

than the rest of the earth's

embedded formed out of magma,

after

corks

in the plates.

The

ma

cape

plates,

or molten rock, that has

may have been caused by

that continuously circulate through the mantle, the

plates

move ponderously away

sulfur released during

from the ridge, carrying the

fires

One

plates collide, the

edge of one section

driven beneath the edge of the other and into the mantle of the earth.

The gargantuan force of such

cause the continental crust to wrinkle

mountain range, and

it

a collision

in the

usually results in

phenomenon

and

form of a

man

more

Terra firma, the

for

it

1966,

Romans

is

Few

called

it.

And when something

seemingly secure begins to behave the experience

to inspire.

offered

in

so

area

373, the Ro-

how mice and snakes had

days before an earthquake struck. And

site

some

in

of several

critical fault lines, California

has

other recent evidence of animal sensitivity to

tremors. James Berkland

granted than the solidity of the earth.

minutes,

Parkfield, California.

The

things

in the

AD

two days before a quake, rattlesnakes invaded the

town of

that resides in the earth.

is likely

and even ants and bees

naturalist Aelian described

fled a city five

Anyone who has ever experienced a major earthquake can are taken

can sense them before they oc-

hours, or days prior to an earthquake. In

of earthquakes -perhaps the most extraordi-

attest to the feeling of panic

that animals

is

birds, frogs, fish,

an enormous

this brings about the violent

nary manifestation of the energy

an earthquake and ignited by hearth

strange behavior of dogs, cats, horses, cattle, elephants,

buildup of pressure. The pressure can then only be equalized by a release of energy,

amounts of natural gas and

thousands of years, observers have described the

cur. For

may

in Scripture

Sodom and Gomorrah

of the persistent bits of folklore surrounding

earthquakes

is

large

of

some people

or lightning.

continents along with them.

When two

cities

an earth-

the Israelites to es-

and brimstone" credited

with destroying the corrupt

mag-

Moses and

that

for the parting

their captivity in Egypt. In a similar vein,

believe that the "fire

oozing up from the underlying mantle of the

earth at the mid-ocean ridge. Energized by currents of

ten feet or

generating seismic sound waves that rever-

quake might actually have been responsible

crust, "float" like

vibrate like the

falls

twenty "plates," or crustal sections. The continents, comlighter materials

But

line.

berate in the atmosphere.

some

Hess's scenario, the earth's upper layer consists of

of these noises are probably

accompany earthquakes. They

of the sounds that

skin of a giant kettledrum.

ers pulled all the evidence together in a compelling theory

that

Some

grating,

have proposed a much stranger explanation

lieve that in a

In the 1960s, Princeton geologist Harry

of hearing disturbing

caused by the rending of stone along the fracture

that the

much younger

volcanic in origin and

is

tell

sounds such as loud groans, explosions, rumbling,

Samples of the seafloor

ridge.

blue flames hovering over the land, or giant

overhead. They

fireballs flying

like a giant

scar along the bottom of the world's oceans. Geologists call this feature the

in the sky,

who relies on

is

a geologist in the San Francisco

highly unusual data to back up his earth-

quake predictions: He tracks the number of missing pets

an unexpected way,

that are reported in the classified advertisments of local

profoundly unsettling.

Other phenomena associated with earthquakes some-

newspapers. Berkland

is

convinced that animals respond

times contribute to the overriding sense of gloom or fore-

currents generated in the earth's electromagnetic

boding. Survivors occasionally report seeing an aurora-like

his view,

59

changes

in that field

to

field. In

are triggered by erratic pres-

To calm tremors in the earth above, a nature god subdues a giant catfish before a kimonoed audience of smaller fish in this old Japanese print. Modem studies have revealed that catfish swim erratically just before an earthquake, perhaps because they sense minute disturbances in the earth's electromagnetic field.

sures along a fault line in the days leading up to a quake,

and these are enough

wander

off

and get

to upset

lost.

animals to the point that they

By monitoring the flow of

lost ani-

mals, Berkland hopes to detect any significant increases that might signal

earthquake

activity.

James Berkland also keeps an eye on the

tidal

patterns

along the California coast. He believes that the enormous

energy released by the pounding of waves on the shoreline

may

contribute to the unstable condition that exists along

the fault lines. there

is

When

an upswing

his

in the

two indicators coincide -when number of missing pets and ab-

normally high tides- Berkland ble

is

will predict that

seismic trou-

brewing.

Many

and

scientists dispute Berkland's theories,

his

unconventional techniques have caused controversy. Yet

he

insists that

over a period of fifteen years during the

1970s and 1980s his predictions of earthquakes were accurate 75 percent of the time. Perhaps the most impressive verification of his theory

tumn of

1989,

when

was seen

incided with especially high tide:

ea during the

week

the au-

he Pacific

coastlines Berkland predicted that a

quake would occur

in

a high incidence ol lost pets co-

in the

San Fran,

i

A

,rth .

following October 14

Ik

to his

Once deemed the cause of earthquakes, dragons now serve as quake de-

while baseball fans the world over

second-century Chinese seismograph. When a tremor jars the device, a rod tips toward the quake's point of origin;

World Series game, the Loma

Pri-

eta fault near the city of Santa Cruz shifted dramatically, resulting in

earthquake that

opens the jaw of the dragon nearer the epicenter and releases a ball into the mouth of a waitthis

an

killed sixty-seven

people and caused widespread property damage.

ing toad. In China, earthquakes are thought to presage political upheav-

al—a

17,

were awaiting the beginning of a

of a

tectors in this replica

warning, on October

There are several possible explanations for the reputed ability of

belief eerily rein-

forced in 1976, when a

animals to detect changing cur-

devastating quake struck six weeks before the

rents in the earth's electromagnetic field. In

death of Mao Zedong.

and

the brains of bees

pi-

geons, for example, there are trace quantities of magnetite, a magnetic ore, that apparently acts as a kind of internal

as they

fly.

Another

compass

possibility

is

in

helping them navigate

that animals

have some

type of sensory device, not yet understood by biologists, that allows

them

to detect the clouds of electrically

ions that are believed to flow to

away from

charged

the earth prior

an earthquake.

Some

researchers believe that

mals can respond

humans

as well as ani-

to this sort of electromagnetic

energy un-

der certain conditions. Scientist James Beal contends that variations in the earth's magnetic field can trigger respons-

es in the nervous systems of certain people ularly sensitive to

are partic-

such anomalies because of quirks

body chemistry. Beal suggests

shamans of the

who

past

in their

and

that the religious leaders

may have been unknowingly respondmade their decisions about

ing to such input as they

where

to situate

A

temples and omphalos stones.

British archaeologist

named

Francis Hitching

has offered an alternative explanation sitivity to

for

human

sen-

the forces hidden within the earth.

He

points out that certain kinds of rock, particularly crystals

such as quartz, are piezoelectric -that

they give off a measurable

when

electrical

is,

charge

they are subjected to pressure. Hitching

ments pile

man

after this

climbed onto the chimney, the whole

down climber was

of rocks collapsed and Luckily, the other

was

but LaChapelle

simple, or the result of

may

some

later,

was

She wondered

LaChapelle

still

provide the scientific explanation.

considers the

is

possible that they

to

be detected by her body, even

not able to sense the problem at a conscious "is that

tune with the rock and at ease with feel

at

it

rock climbers as rock

if

level.

she

was

"What

one must be

I

in

from a great deal of

it

The others were not as experienced

all.

and they

I,

destabiliz-

may have accumulated

it

climbing to

lat-

the rocks that

If

enough voltage

do know," LaChapelle concluded,

warning

that Hitching's theory

formed the dangerous chimney had been under ing pressures,

if

pure and

instinct,

sort of nonverbal

and she has decided

ter a possibility,

not seriously injured,

utterly mystified.

left

her inability to tackle the chimney

from the rock. Years

the slope.

fell

nothing unusual

felt

until the

slid out."

When

Aristotle declared that air

was one

of the four funda-

mental elements, he did so purely out of respect Without

sential nature:

He had no idea

air,

that air

for its es-

he reasoned, no one could

was

live.

many gases— mainly

a mix of

nitrogen and oxygen, but with minute quantities of argon

and other gases as simply took the

well. Like

most people today,

air for granted:

It

was always

Aristotle

there and

largely unremarkable.

Another way of thinking about the atmosphere, how-

Bathers take the waters at Baia, a Roman spa town north of Naples, in this picture from a thirteenth-century travel guide. Each spring listed in the book supposedly had distinct healing powers. This one, good for the stomach, also "lifted souls and sent away sighs.

ocean of

ever, is as a great

atmosphere's mass notes that quartz types of rock

is

a constituent part of

and therefore

is

extremely

many

traces of

different

common. He

and exposed

to great pressure,

electrical current to

There

is

no

draw

may

clear indication that

human

is

some

anyone has ever been

spell

over mountaineers.

It

may weave

their

All

Approaching a rock formation

known

s

this

ocean of

air is the

subjected to a

more

pounds of pressure per square

inch.

is

its

tides, or

results:

They can

minor ones, such

to cook.

of the

phenomena

that are collectively referred to

a region that

is

known

amount of energy

is

five to ten

miles of the atmosphere,

as the troposphere.

An enormous

gathered, exchanged, and released

Canada.

within this narrow band of the air ocean. Gentle breezes

as a chimney, she

and thunderstorms, the vast sweep of trade winds and the

in

found that she could not bring herself to step onto raise her foot to

bottom of

on which everything

occur within the bottom

a startling experience

peak

level,

as the weather- winds, clouds, storms, rain, and the like —

One veteran mountaineer

that befell her while climbing a challenging

50 miles above sea

fluctuation in this pressure has

minutes

very best climbers often forge an uncanny sense of oneness

named Dolores LaChapelle described

first

as stopped-up ears and three-minute eggs that take five

has long been observed that the

with the rocks they ascend.

the

be serious ones, such as higher

intriguing evidence to

suggest that the tiny electrical currents

lies in

or less constant fifteen

Any

body.

so sensitive to piezoelectric charges as to be able to anticipate earthquakes, but there

latter

have been detected some 18,000 miles above

earth's surface,

give off sufficient

a response from the

it

the earth. At the very

spec-

ulates that quartz crystals, trapped within other rock formations

and water vapor, the

air

existing in the form of clouds. Although 99 percent of the

make

it.

potent

After

the easy

jet

streams

ning, hail, sleet,

first

climber to assume the lead. Mo-

at altitudes of

and snow are

30,000 to 45,000 all

feet, light-

expressions of the ther-

mal, electrical, or rotational energy that flows continuously 62

through the great recycling system of the atmosphere. All

human

of this activity has had a deep effect on the

ways

beings view the world. The intricacies of weather

are a constant source of interest, as

Mark Twain noted

worldwide data-collecting network of sels, airplanes,

day, readings

and ground weather

on temperature, wind,

atmospheric pressure, and

many

satellites,

stations.

ocean vesTwice each

precipitation, humidity,

other weather variables

more than a century ago. Oddly enough, however, most

are received by the National Weather Service headquarters

people today seem to assume that the weather

in

unpredictable

now

as

it

was in Twain's time. come a long way,

science of meteorology has

is

nearly as

now spend

forecasts,

proved.

A

billions of dollars every

typical forty-eight-hour forecast

is

and

fed into

some

of the world's most

powerful computers. The data can then be analyzed by

particularly

the forecasters.

year on weather

and the accuracy of the reports has

D.C.,

In fact, the

during the past thirty years. The United States and other nations

Washington,

steadily im-

now

correct

The science of weather prediction dates from the development

in the

1

700s of various meteorological instru-

ments. The barometer, which measures changes pheric pressure,

was

the

most notable of the new

in

atmos-

tools. For

about 80 percent of the time— a record twice as good as could be claimed in the 1960s. In

tional

making

their predictions, meteorologists for the

Weather Service

in the

Na-

United States depend upon a

Eyes shaded by parasols, women lie buried to their chins in a hot "sand bath" in Beppu, Japan. Each year, millions of tourists visit Beppufor treatments ranging from the sand baths—said to relieve arthritis— to more conventional immersions in mineral springs.

When

thousands of years prior to these developments, however, people relied on less sophisticated methods for determining

whether a day would be teur forecasting

or foul.

fair

And many

methods developed

of the

ferring to short-term fluctuations in the

number

ama-

time are

in that

mate"

still

Some

people, for instance, swear that they can feel

bones when

of hours, days, or weeks.

atmosphere over a

The broader term

"cli-

atmospheric conditions of a region over

refers to the

a long period. Changes in climate that take millions of years

widely observed today.

in their

meteorologists talk about weather, they are re-

rain

coming. This

is

is

to transpire

it

have profoundly affected

more

planet has undergone a

not an unlikely

on

life

earth.

The

or less regular cycle of ice

or illogical claim, because humidity can aggravate certain

ages alternating with warmer interglacial periods. Evidence

physical conditions such as arthritis. Birds figure promi-

from plant

nently in other folkloric forecasting methods. Swallows are

creep across the land indicates that the earth has experi-

swoop

said to will

out a rainstorm together. Geese and

sit

show

other migrating birds

weather than

the tendency to

may be

tems move from west

it,

and moist

air

good indication

on

its

way

in

that there

is

to

be

little

example, the

form Long Island

life

ice.

ice age, a

drop

The exact reason enced by wobbles

the second day of February

One

traditional

water

seem

to

caterpillar's

brown

be. Scientists

have

have much

During the

woolly bears stripes.

fou,

be accurate more

Many

bit,

sun

to

ages periodically gripping the

in the earth's rotation,

influ-

which change the

may be

which cause the planet

Even minor changes

to

variations in the earth's or-

swing farther away from the

in the

amount of

solar energy

reaching the earth are enough to alter climate patterns. Sci-

inter will

ome-

long-range forecasting

for ice

humans

from certain. Glacial cycles are probably

sible contributing factor

ider the fuzzy

n

is far

last

angle at which the sun's rays strike the planet. Another pos-

that particu-

weather predictor that does appear

c

countryfolk swear by

to

in the tropics.

of the Bering Sea created a land

cross from Asia into the Americas.

do with anything other than the weather on

seems

changed the con-

bridge between Siberia and Alaska, allowing

Day turkeys be-

soil

York. In addition to such direct land, glaciers

their

the Thanksgiving

North

This lowered the levels of the seas and

in the level

shadow on

ly

New

reduced the amount of rainfall

that

cows indicate rain or that spiders leave webs when rain is approaching or that dark in

In

on the planet by trapping enormous quanti-

of water in

earth

lar day.

in

on the shape of the

speak a hard winter to come. Nor does the groundhog's

to hold

ice

ways.

reclining

breastbones

to

retreats of glaciers altered the land-

scooped out the basins of the

for

ditions for

less serviceable.

saw

ice.

America,

to

weather-

validity to the old

York City and smothered the

in significant

ties

weather folklore are

Other There seems

New

scape of several continents

effects

is

from the west. bits of

much

Great Lakes and bulldozed vast quantities of sand and

accentuates the

dry air-and fine

Louis and

St.

The advances and

most weather sys-

because of the earth's rota-

to east

through

light filtering

600 million years. At

which lasted three million

land under mile-thick sheets of

holds up well under scientific

it

yellow end of the spectrum. Therefore, a red sky at sunset a

present-day

amateur

tends to reflect the red component of the sun-

air

in the last

years and ended in about 8000 BC, glaciers covered

fair

at night, sailors'

the distillation of centuries of

scrutiny In the northern temperate zone,

Dry

higher in

ages

glaciers as they

of the northern hemisphere. They extended as far south as

weather observation, but

tion.

fly

ice

the height of the last ice age,

in foul.

The popular aphorism "red sky delight"

enced three major

close to the ground before a rain; seagulls

congregate and

and rocks scraped by

fossils

entists believe that the

•

)t

<

M

enormously slow, but steady,

ing of the continents has also had an effect.

As the

nents gradually move, they cause alterations

in the

drift-

conti-

flow of

Energy Points in Red Roch Country For people with psychic powers, writes

New Age world tive

is

lecturer Dick Sutphen, the

dotted with "positive or nega-

power

spot[s]

where a great con-

centration of energy emits from the earth."

He

calls these places vortices

Situated in a region held sacred by

Sedona has inspired a wave of New Age pilgrims. On the occasion of the so-called Harmonic the Yavapai Indians,

Convergence,

for

example,

in

August

1987, five thousand visitors flocked to

Many

of the modern-day

and suggests that they exist in Stonehenge and the Bermuda Triangle. Even more powerful, Sutphen contends, is

the area.

the red-rock country near Sedona,

and

Arizona. There, he and other psychics

with relief from fatigue. Other visitors

have identified four separate vortices: Boynton Canyon (below, left), Cathedral Rock (below, right), Bell Rock, and a site called Airport Mesa, near the

allege a range of paranormal experi-

town's small landing

strip.

town's arts community

is

benefiting

from the vortices. The region's energy, says one gallery owner, "can only be used in a positive way." Those who try to create something negative, he says, "don't stay around. spit

them

.

.

.

The red rocks

right out of here."

seekers report that they experience strange physical sensations. Hot hands feet are oft-heard claims,

along

ences: telepathy, automatic writing,

memories of past

lives,

visions, healings,

and UFO

precognition, sightings.

According to some reports, even the

A full moon

rises

behind

the rugged sandstone spires of Cathedral Rock (above), supposedly intensifying the area's

already potent psychic energy. At left, a rock "energy circle" in the shape of an Indian medicine wheel has been put in place by New Age enthusiasts to surround a point in Boynton Canyon that they consider to be the most powerful of Sedona's vortices.

ocean currents that carry the North

and South

Since the

warm

equatorial waters toward

lative at this point, there is the possibility that earth

poles.

age ended 10,000 years ago,

last ice

now

atures a century from

higher on average than the temperatures today. The results

at least

one long period of exceptionally low temperatures has

of such a change

in-

would include devastating heat waves,

terrupted the current interglacial period. In the seventeenth

long droughts, and a rise

century, Europe endured a succession of severely cold win-

last effect

ters

and

chilly

summers

that froze the

the grape harvests in

famine to Russia and as

far east

trend lingered throughout

much

and may have been responsible

failure

and

in the levels

of the oceans. This

would be caused by the expansion of seawater—

which increases

Dutch canals, ruined

France, and brought crop

temper-

could be nearly ten degrees

in

volume as

it

warms— and

a partial melt-

ing of the polar icecaps.

as China. This cooling

of the following century

If

and the atmosphere have come

the air

to

symbolize the

potential dangers lurking in the future, the third Aristotelian

for the devastatingly cold

when Washington's encampment at Valley

winters of the American Revolution,

element— fire— was the one

troops suffered through their brutal

was the lightning bolt down by the gods and the angry threat of the erupting volcano. It was a fierce weapon of war and the final affront closely associated with danger. Fire

Forge and armies trundled cannons across the frozen surface of

cast

Long Island Sound. Climate historians have linked

the prolonged chill of this so-called Little Ice

porary decline

in the

Age

to a

most

that people in past ages

tem-

of the pillaging barbarian conqueror. But

sun's energy output. The dark smudg-

be a positive symbol of comfort and good.

could also

fire It

was

the reas-

es on the solar surface called sunspots,

suring blaze inside the hearth and the chimerical light of the

wax and wane

aurora borealis.

in cycles,

whose numbers were notably absent during much

of this period. Little Ice

Age

is

streams from the enormous

a forbidding reminder that, even

The

during relatively benign periods like the one that

energy

human

all

beings have enjoyed for the

years or so, climate

is

10,000

last

never truly stable. There

strong evidence, for instance, that a small colony

was wiped out by 1500 because of a change fate befalling future

tions in other parts of the world

dawn

burning of coal and

bon dioxide

oil

which hydrogen

fusion in

has

into the earth's

pumped

genera-

stove burner, id

joining of

is

fire

occurring on earth, the

match or

of a

in the

blue spikes of a

combine

bon, and these are the chief ingredients of such

C0 2

particularly well with

climatologists beI

temperatures one degree Fahn.

has raised world I

expect the trend to accelerate

tion of

io-and they

cal

projections

probk

atoms of hydrogen and

fuels as coal, gasoline, natural gas,

ucts as soot

green

come

converted to helium under im-

billions of tons of car-

my

that

the product of a chemical reaction-the rap-

gradual elevation

scientists exploring this

and heat

oxygen with other substances. Oxygen atoms

reaction gives off heat

made by

light

two centuries ago, the

atmosphere. Atmospheric

in tempi.

is

form of

familiar

in the flaring

traps solar heat reflecting back from the earth, causing a

lieve that this so-called

as the sun. Solar

at the center of the star.

The more

in the

cannot be dismissed. Since

of the Industrial Revolution

known

fireball

and nurtures the plants on which

animals ultimately depend. The

kind seen

The prospect of such a

the earth

mense pressure

climate of that region

the

warms

that

from the sun are products of an ongoing process of nuclear

is

established by the Vikings in Greenland during the tenth

century

depends on the vast flow of energy

All life

and

light,

and wood. The chemical along with such byprod-

(unconsumed carbon) and smoke

water vapor, carbon dioxide, and

term

for this

process

is

car-

common

soot).

(a

combina-

The techni-

combustion, a word that carries

connotations of the explosive forces involved.

hty specu-

Learning to control and 66

make use

of

fire

was

as im-

human

portant to the development of

and language.

tion of tools

It

provided protection from pred-

ural sources of this

and made humans better hunters. Among other

ators

hunters learned to set grass

tactics, early

into traps for easy slaughter. Fire

game weapons

the early cave dwellers used to claim their

of the

homes from

able.

of hearth

light

Some caves show

itation for

fires

then

And

lieve that the behavioral routines of

cation :::

fires

the caves

gy and

unpredictable and destructive mountains

liv-

cooking and eating

in

sat

around a campfire and

fire to

priests

magic and

would

help create the appropriate

certainly

mood

monies, and

fire

most austere

religions today. Candles burn

dles of a

Ritual fire

in all

but the altars of

its

way

spun out an elaborate web of mythology

depend upon a sacred flame

state

bottle of brandy. isfied

fire.

She was

whenever she was angry

Hawaii's largest volcano,

was

with these

made

The princess chanted prayers

offerings of silk scarves

According to island gifts,

tradition, Pele

and a

was

sat-

stopping the lava short of the town

and quieting Mauna Kea.

candles

There

nine can-

is

some evidence

prehistoric times

that the

may have gone

to

Hawaiians

living in

even greater lengths

to

human beings as sacrifimay have been adopted in

their volcanoes, offering

cial victims.

Similar practices

Central America, Java, and Africa as well. Given the capa-

were be-

ciousness of volcanoes and their

that flickered inside

The French saw

under the Arc de Triomphe

when

quickly brought to the scene.

into civil affairs as

Rome, the fortunes of the

to light a perpetual flame

The Hawai-

Kea, erupted and threatened to envelop the town of

appease

the temple of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. fit

light

ritually lighting the

has long found

fire.

of the most active volca-

temperamental goddess of

before the lava and

menorah.

well. In imperial

lieved to

have

deceased loved ones. Jews celebrate

Hanukkah by

Pele, their

some

of these

derived from

Hilo in a river of lava, a princess of the royal family

for their cere-

most Christian churches, and Roman Catholics the festival of

Mauna

reli-

on the

continues to play a part

for the souls of their

in the world,

canic activity. In 1881,

must have played

earliest rituals of

Shamans and

gion.

"wn to pass e

The remaining 75 percent

is

amount

locked up

is

is in

in gla-

and the polar icecaps. Nevertheless, the small percent-

age of fresh water that

ground, along telephone wires and fences. Ball lightning usually lasts

its

lightning appears in

which appears on the masts and yards of

like St

is

to break apart into strings of dis-

flashes.

consists of a ball or

As

year.

an ephemeral blue flame

over a swamp.

un-

electricity

lightning will take a form other than

seem

connected

form of

observed a spark jump from the

the clouds to the earth.

er hand,

The energy generated

in the

and

lightning

the familiar jagged streaks crackling

bolts that

trons.

thun-

752 — in France by Thomas-

who performed

kite in that

lights are triggered

generated

hail inside a

base of a metal pole during a thunderstorm, and by Benjamin Franklin,

is

earthly materials in the upper atmosphere, dislodging elec-

that lightning

1

the sky

fire in

streaming from the sun. The particles smash into atoms of

man.

in

has never

These shimmering curtains of evanescent red and

The northern

to tear the clothes off people

by the violent churning of wind, rain, and

first

it

scientists.

blue appear in winter, usually in the vicinity of the Arctic

without harming a hair, and — in at least one case— it has restored the sight of a blind

by

The most spectacular display of

effects are strangely unpre-

its

well documented, but

doubtedly the aurora borealis, also called the northern

by lightning

hit

is

satisfactorily explained

human

sometimes with severe burns but often without a

survive,

of ball lightning

been

wasted. In the

is

United States, lightning claims an average of 400 lives per year. Still, three

ality

on the

all

enough

springs,

and underground reservoirs

to nour-

is

not frozen

fills

planet.

surface water eventually finds

an equal amount must somehow

to the earth.

More than 2,000 years ago,

way to the way back anonymous

its

find

the

its

author of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes appeared to un-

re-

70

71

A menacing whirlpool,

six feet

marks the convergence of tides and oth-

across at

its

center,

er currents in the Strait of Messina, a channel between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Large enough to swallow small fishing boats, according to local lore, this vortex may have inspired Homer's account of the undersea monster Charybdis, a

terror who sucked ocean waters— and hapless sailors— into her gaping maw.

phantom

derstand this cycle intuitively: "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea rivers

come,

How

is

not

full;

unto the place from whence the

thither they return again."

the cycle actually stayed in balance, however, re-

mained a profound mystery

many centuries. The first philosophers was why the oceans

puzzle for early natural

never overflowed with them.

all

One hypothesis was

for

the world's rivers pouring into that

seawater was driven under-

ground by giant whirlpools before surfacing again as But this only led to a second thorny question:

waters found on earth be fresh

if all

How could

the oceans that

Not

until the late

derstood that rain

is

eighteenth century

answer

the

to

was

it

widely un-

both questions. Sea-

water evaporates into the atmosphere and leaves behind, just as water

is distilled

es in a laboratory retort.

When

again to earth as rain,

it

when

Many observers have

it

boils

its salts

and condens-

the moisture from the seas

replenishes the ground-water

system and eventually reappears ers.

the

were

sources were salty?

their

falls

rivers.

in springs, wells,

and

riv-

likened the everlasting flow of

earth's hydrologic cycle to that of the

human

bloodstream,

which also has no beginning and no end. Most scientists agree that life on earth almost certainly originated in water, perhaps in tidal pools that provided a

warm environment where amino

acids could link together form complex chains of proteins. Such a process may have occurred about 3.6 billion years ago, but another 3.2 billion years would elapse before the amphibians that were to

the

most

the tidal

human hegemony on

distant ancestors of the

ooze

to establish

race crawled from the land.

Ancient peoples looked upon the oceans with a mixture of reverence

and

fear.

The Babylonians, who

along the Tigris and Euphrates country of

rivers, in

what

is

lived

now

the

regarded the ocean as a "home of wisdom" and believed that their sea god, Oannes, stepped forth from Iraq,

the Persian Gulf to bring culture, writing, the

human

race.

The Greeks, on

the ocean as an unpredictable

whose

qualities

th

and tr< were personified by then

and astrology

to

hand, looked on s

adversary, >d,

Posei-

72

73

Raft-bome scientists (opposite) dredge an ancient sinkhole near the Mayan ruins ofChichen Itza in this aerial photograph taken in 1961. Mayan priests hurled living women and children into the pool, beseeching the gods for rain.

don. Every sailor feared the wrath of this capricious

who

deity,

wave of

could with a

winds and crashing waves.

In

Indian lore suspect that

keeping with his destructive

who

also feared as the god

from early missionary accounts of Noah, which then spread

punished

some of the stemmed from an event that actually occurred at the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago. Judging by geologic evidence, a natural ice dam from

with earthquakes. Rivers, like the

oceans

to

which they

flow,

symbolized as powerful givers and takers of

life.

all

of the great early civilizations were nourished by rivers, and the people of those cultures worshiped

gods

who

rich

over their farmlands could also be

silt

tive.

So,

spirits

many

cultures

endowed

much

what

is

now

with harmful

story

most dramatically

was many which massive destruction was

cultures, of a great flood in

in the legend,

followed by regeneration. The biblical story of

best-known version of this

tale,

themes contained

mately 2800

to rivers

common

is

account

own

story of

Tigris

some

a flood that rav-

and Euphrates Valley

scholars, based

in

approxi-

myth of Deukalion was, on a devastating

tidal

in

about 1500 BC of a volcano on the Aegean island of Santorin.

may

According to

this theory, Santorin's

wave washed

over the island of Crete and accounted for the sudden col-

have been adapted from a similar legend passed on by the Sumerians. The Greeks had their

oth-

The Sumerian account on which Noah's

wave, or tsunami, that was caused by the explosion

the

but biblical scholars believe

in this scriptural

may have spawned

BC. Similarly, the flood

according to

to

Noah

eastern Washington State.

was based could have stemmed from

aged much of the

The magnitude of the power attributed

that basic

of

er flood tales, too.

as well.

reflected

possible, however, that

Stupendous natural disasters

-

terribly destruc-

their rivers

is

It

melted and emptied the contents of a huge lake across

controlled

the benificent flow of the great streams. Yet the floods that

allowed these civilizations to thrive by distributing nutrient

tribe to tribe.

Native American flood myths

have been Almost

of a

tell

who have studied this aspect of the tales may have drawn heavily

great flood, but scholars

glassy sea into a storm-wracked nightmare of howling

was

North American Indian tribes that also

his trident turn a

nature, Poseidon

There are legends passed down in many

lapse of the

an epochal

Minoan

And with the Minoan inMycenaean civilization came into its own on the

culture there.

fluence suddenly in decline, the

flood: In their version, the

god Zeus becomes disgust-

Littered with latter-day spirit offerings, this holy well in Ireland's

ed with the wicked ways of

County Clare is known for the cure of toothaches, but it is also said improve fertility and promote general good health.

Greek mainland. to

The epic cleansing of

humanity and decides to

the earth

and subsequent

put an end to the mortal

rebirth of

mankind, as por-

realm by causing a mighty deluge.

The Noah

the Greek ion, a

myth

is

figure in

Deukal-

trayed in

many

myths,

echoed on a per-

is

sonal level

son of Prometheus.

of the flood

in the sacra-

ment of baptism. The wor-

Flood stories also find a

shiper

place in the mythologies of

ritual initiation dies

Wales, Lithuania, Norway,

bolically

Iran,

Central America,

Australia,

spirit.

and China.

who

submits to

and

is

Although

it

this

sym-

reborn is

in

associ-

ated mainly with Christian-

74

75

ity,

baptism was also a custom of the ancient Hebrews. The

medical researchers tend to scoff at the reputed curative

pour upon you

powers of mineral waters, a few of these supposed drinking

Old Testament prophet Ezekiel wrote:

"I will

Among

nies in the cult of the alistic

one

the Greeks,

fertility

most sacred ceremo-

of the

goddess Aphrodite was a

bathing of her statue. The practice

was

Mother

ing the Blessed

in

the

Sumerian alphabet, the

ent contexts In the

mean

creation

drop of rain

letter

A

could

on mother earth was

New

Many

It

ers of

make

arable

curative

powers

fire,

though

this

are

who

the earth through

as well, there were holy wells long before the Chris-

ered such springs to be sites

gifts

need, but

it

a fabled fountain of youth.

that of the

upper story

leg-

Spanish con-

some

world

none of the

on a

futile

Over the years Jung made addi-

He

completed the building

finally

Bolligen

wrote,

in

of the largest and pur-

the

power

none of

By the

to rex

appeal

in

up from the m< xie

1

last

addition

in

was an

"represents myself, or

my

was

to

be a kind of maternal

could

doing so, perhaps,

earth's elements to put

Although

planet as a whole. 76

that the

womb

in

house

at

which, as he

become what was, what am and will be." time the building was finished, it had become the

"I

I

lung recalled, "a feeling as In

its

it,

I

psychiatrist's touchstone to his

the process of aging

The use of therapeutic wal

as Jung put

The

From the beginning, Jung understood

de Leon found out to spri

that,

wanted

ego-personality."

search for

The limestone substrate found

the region does in fact support

at Bolligen in

also expressed a facet of himself that he

to represent in stone.

quistador juan Ponce de Leon. At the age of sixty- three, the

earth has lost

stones. In 1923, at the age of forty-

Each room that he added answered a practical domestic

Undoubtedly the most famous of the American

his chagrin,

its

he began construction of a stone house

1955, after the death of his wife.

great explorer set out through Florida

re-

life

same

whooping cough.

est springs in the

as a boy so thoroughly identified with

the north of Switzerland.

reputed ability to cure any ailment from warts to

is

believe they

tions to the building, using stones from a nearby quarry.

of the earth goddess. The

ends regarding curative waters

human

primitive

who

British Isles consid-

were usually given sanction by the Church and revered

for their

felt in

strong for those

still

herself. Al-

the rock he discovered in his family garden, later in

eight,

The pagan inhabitants of the

pow-

affirmed his conviction that he could tap into the energy of

the Greeks, for

health dates back at least 2,500 years. In various parts of

tian era.

mother earth

to

bond was most tangibly

its ties

example, the custom of taking the waters to restore one's

Britain,

of Aristotle's ancient

and the ubiquity of air, humankind's most insep-

Carl Jung,

Among

first

can sense them.

their prayers.

to sacred springs.

salts in

blessings of water, the

bond has always been

societies,

built

Western Europe a longstanding tradition attributes

In

many

elements. Whatever the

over sacred springs so that worshipers could bathe before

embarking upon

sufferers

perhaps significant that the minerals and

is

sediments of the earth itself— the

Mexico, a

Buddhist temples were

and

these curative waters have been leached from the rocks and

her pregnant. Buddhists, too, have long celebrated the purifying effects of water.

salts are natural laxatives,

from anemia can benefit from drinking certain waters that

fertility. In

sufficient to

fairly effective

are high in iron.

water, sperm, conception, or generation.

myth of the Pima Indians of

falling

whose

various differ-

in

By neutralizing stom-

healthful benefits.

example, alkaline waters are

Epsom

tions of

This custom reflects

rain.

the seemingly timeless association of water with

for

treatments against dyspepsia. Waters with high concentra-

ritu-

times of drought, beseech-

send

to

ach acids,

carried over

into Christianity in the veneration of the Virgin Mary,

worshipers washed her icons

some

cures have

clean water and you shall be cleansed."

it

if

I

own

life spirit. "It

gave me,"

were being reborn

in stone."

allowed Jung's

him

in

affinity for

contact with the

one of

spirit

of the

rum

HHHi

The Venerable Power of Trees

*V,

priests sacrificed other

human

Centuries ago in France, pagan

beings to the trees they worshiped.

As recently as the 1800s in Estonia, peasants festooned certain trees with wreaths and made offerings to them so that their cattle might thrive. Even today, Christian and Muslim pilgrims pay homage to an old, gnarled Arabian fig that is located just outside the city of Cairo; they tree,

her

seek cures

from the sacred said to have rested during

for their ailments

under which the Virgin Mary

is

flight to Egypt.

For

many

early peoples, trees— especially those of great size,

beauty, or apparent longevity— came to symbolize the wonders of creation and thus were revered as divine. Forests

were thought

to

be the abodes of gods, and certain trees became associated with particular deities and were ascribed magical powers. As a means of appeasing the gods, worshipers laid offerings before the trees, prayed or meditated in the shelter of their branches, or tied ritual objects to them.

Some

and the bo tree, under have sought enlightenment-

trees— including the Arabian

fig

which Gautama Buddha is said to were sacred by virtue of their association with religious figures. Others were worshiped for their beneficence. In India, for instance, where the cool shade of wide-spreading trees is welcomed, banyans are protected by religious injunction. Examples of venerated trees, including

some revered

for their

medicinal or alleged oracu-

lar powers, appear on the following pages.

$ ;•

is

«

ft

>'

>

I

-

'

A Gnarled Symbol of

Peace

and Redemption

ne of the

v,>.

first

trees ever cultivated,

the long-lived olive

is

imbued with symbolism. According to legend, it sprang into being when

Greek deities Poseidon and Athena were vying for possession of Attica. Aiming to please the other

gods, Poseidon struck the earth with his trident to

produce a horse. But Athena caused an olive tree to it was deemed more valuable gift.

grow, and *s

?*r

Like the banyan, the bo tree

is

believed

by Hindus to shelter their gods;

it

cosmic

also represents the tree Asvattha,

thought to shelter the world.

The bo

tree

is

\1

sa-

cred to Buddhists as well, for

it

was under such

a

Buddha received enlightenment. To followers of Buddhism, the bo tree that

tree

symbolizes creation,

wisdom, and preparation for the afterlife.

the tree

is

Destroying

a sacrilege.

A cutting said to have come from Buddha's bo tree was transplanted to Anuradhapura, Ceylon, in 288 BC and is reputed to be the oldest existing tended tree. In 1948 the bo began to wither, and Bud-

"mm

dhists flocked to resurrect it

with gallons of milk,

poured down tree

was

its

trunk.

duly revived.

The

m

,

An Upside-Down Irec Thai

Bears Many

grow upside

mv&s&L

many down beby

aid to

Gills

cause its skimpy branches resemble roots, the squat

baobab

much

tree thrives in

of Africa and in

parts of Australia.

The

bountiful tree provides fruit for

food, bark for rope

and woven cloth, and medicinal powders for a variety of ailments.

contend the baobab

A

magical:

Some is

drink of water

in which the bark has been soaked is said to bestow

strength. side,

On

some

the darker

Africans be-

lieve that the tree's

white

flowers are inhabited by spirits

who

and

that

anyone

plucks the blossoms

be devoured by a lion. Because the baobab's

will

wood

is

away,

its

soft

and

easily cut

massive trunkwhich can be as much as thirty feet in diameter- is often hollowed to fill with water in the rainy season, enabling foraging tribes to survive on the parched

land during dry months.

Hollowed trunks are also used for shelter.

mV»

HH w

••*

Ek^c

»»•

^

^v^-A ^rv ^fl

r\

^vl<

Jv-

'"^^

^^^»_^»^Yp » V-

r

^^

1

*

.'iJHfe^^Ni^^fe

f^'

^^^^^^Bdfc

%

V^^lI

jHlla

iW

^

>l

House. 1986 Sacred Wau

Mane In

Britain

Salem

New

Dogra, Bharat, Forests and People Dogra, 1983

yons and Mesas (The American Wilderness

lis and Water Lore Granada, 1985.

in Britain

Buchanan, Keith. Charles P Fitzgerald, and Coin; nan, China New

lapan (Library of Nations series) Alexandria, Va.: TimeLife Books, 1985. dria.

Va

:

Unknown

series)

J

,

Feng-Shui London Synergistic Press, 1984

Eliade, Mircea:

New

Dreams and

York: Harper

Mysteries. Transl.

&

by Philip Mairet

Row, 1960.

Patterns in Comparative Religion Cleveland: World, 1963

Emboden, William A iicul

New

,

Bizarre Plants

Magical. Monstrous.

York: Macmillan, 1974.

The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening Emmaus.

Pa.:

Rodale Press, 1978 Erdoes, Richard

and

Nev

ling,

1979.

York:

Report:

to Global Ecological Issues

Gordon, Lesley, The Mystery and Magic of Trees and Flowers Exeter, England Webb & Bower, 1985 Graves, Tom, Needles of Stone. London Turnstone Press, 1978 Great Disasters Pleasantville,

NY

Reader's Digest Associ-

ation, 1989

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:

PICTURE CREDITS The sources for the pictures are given below. Credits from left are set off by semicolons, from top to bottom by dashes

to right

Colin Andrews, Bloomsbury, London, 1989. 22: Adam Woolfitt, Susan Griggs Agency, London 23: Yanki, courtesy

Museum

Cover: Artwork by Bryan Leister.

6, 7

Frederick C. Taylor,

From Circular Evidence by Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews, Bloomsbury, London,

Andover, Hants, England

8,

9

Frederick C. Taylor, Andover, Hants, England 12, 13: From Circular Evidence by Pat Delgado and Colin

1989

10, II:

Andrews, Bloomsbury, London, 1989

Sygma

14,

15

D Hudson/

17 Will Williams, Stansbury, Ronsaville,

Wood,

Inc.

20 The British Library, London -Frederick C Taylor, Andover, Hants, England 2! From Fortean Times #53; from Circles from the Sky, ed. by George Terence Meaden, Souvenir Press, London, 199 -from Circular Evidence by Pat Delgado and 18:

Yorkshire Television, Leeds, England

1

of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey. 25: J. Zuckerman/Westlight. 26, 27 Nimatallah/Ricciarini, Milan. 28: Galen Rowell/Mountain Light, Albany, Calif. 30: Mick Sharp, Caernarvon, Gwynedd, Wales. 31-33 Homer Sykes, London 34: R Ian Lloyd, Singapore 35 Leong Ka Tai, Hong Kong 37 F C Tyler; Hereford and Worcester County Library, Hereford, England. 39 Jerry Jacka, Phoenix Kurt Kummels/Superstock (detail from page 49) 40, 41 42: Terry E Eiler, Mugwump 43 Jerry Jacka, Phoenix. 44, 45: David Meunch, Santa Barbara. Calif 46. 47: Art Kane, Pasadena, Calif. 48, 49; Jerry Jacka, Phoenix. 51: Will Williams, Stansbury, Ronsaville, Wood, Inc 53 Anthony Suau/Black Star 55 Smithsonian Institution Photo No 79-

139

14705. 56, 57 Taikichi Irie, Nara Prefecture, Japan 60, 61: Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo; Jim Mendenhall c National Geographic Society 62: Hum-

berto N Serra, Rome, courtesy Biblioteca Angelica,

Rome

Tom

Bean,

68, 69

Philip

63

Paul Chesley/ Photographers Aspen. 65:

Flagstaff, Ariz.;

Dick Canby, Sedona, Ariz

Griffiths/Magnum. 71: Superstock 72, 73 George Silk for Life 74 Allen Kennedy/Janet and Colin Bord, Wales. 75: Bates Littlehales c 1961 National Geographic Society 78, 79: Judy Canty/Stock-Boston 80, 81 Kevin Schafer/Peter

Arnold Inc 82 G Ziesler/Peter Arnold inc 83: David KraseHiser/ Photographers Aspen. 84, 85 Stephen mann/Peter Arnold Inc 86, 87 David Meunch, Santa Barbara, Calif 89 Will Williams. Stansbury, Ronsaville, Wood, Inc. 90: From The Arunta by Baldwin Spencer and F J

J

Gillen.

ton, Essex. England. 103: Homer Sykes. London. 104: Tuskegee University Archives 106: Yong's Martial Arts Association, Jamaica Plain, Mass.; from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees by Herbert Edlin and Maurice Nimmo, Harmony Books. 1978. 109: Backster Research Foundation. San Diego. 110. Ill: George Crouter, Denver 113; From Chinese Oeomancy by Derek Walters. Element Books. Dorset, England, 1989— Fred Holz, from Empires Ascendant (Time Frame series) by the Editors of Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Va.. 1987. 114-117: Yvonne Gensurowskv. 119:

Macmillan, London. 1927. 91: Paul Broadhurst.

Launceton, Cornwall. England. 92 R Berriedale-Johnson/ Panos Pictures. London 93: D. Laine-Hoa-Qui, Paris. 94: Richard Lannoy. from The Tree of Life by Roger Cook. Avon. New York. 1974. 95: Reinhard Eisele, Augsburg. Germany 96;

ET Archive. London

Zigy

Kaluzny/Gamma

97: British Library,

Liaison

UP

London. 98:

July 17. 1989,

pp

1

16-

117 filed 541 -PL 100: Botanical Magazine LXXm 1847. T. 4296. 101: From Bizarre Plants by William A. Emboden.

New

Macmillan.

York. 1974. 102: Michael Holford. Lough-

Will Williams. Stansbury, Ronsaville,

Wood.

Inc. 121

Smith for People. December 25. 1989. 122, 123:

Terry

Man Mc-

H Preuschoft. Bochum. Germany. 126: 127: From Ether. Cod and Devil by Wilhelm Reich. Farrar Straus and Giroux. New Mullen. 125: Dr.

Syndication international, London

York, 1973. 128, 129: Courtesy Harper

&.

Row

Publishers

from Secrets of the Soil by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. 132: R. Ian Lloyd. Singapore 134. 135: From TheFmdhom Garden by the Findhom Community. Harper & Row, New York, 1975. 136 Chazz Sutphen

INDEX Numerals

an

in italics indicate

the subject

illustration

of

A Abraham

(biblical figure),

52

Acacias. 107

Acupuncture characteristics of, 38; and farming, 136, 137; and feng shui, 38; and Sig Longren. 136

Adam and

(biblical figure):

and Golgotha.

27;

knowledge. 95

tree of

Aelian. 59 Africa,

Mother Goddess

27

in,

Agriculture (Steiner), 129 Airport Mesa,

65 Alibard, Thomas-Francois

D',

70

Althing, 32

Alton Bames (England), crop circles 14-15

in.

Amanita muscana. 102 American Indians and floods. 74; and redwoods. 87; and sacred earth, 39 See also Apaches; Brule Sioux; CherokChippewas; Comanches. Creek Indians; Eskimos: Havasupais, Hopis; Huichols; Iroquois; Navajos, Pawnees: Pimas;

Taos Indians; Zunis

Amundson, Ronald, 125 Ancestor worship See Shinto Anesthetics ergot as, 100. mandrakes as

96 Animals and earthquakes, 59-60, 61: and meteorology. 64 See also Birds; Chimpanzees. Dragons Macaque; Phoc Rats Tiger-

Anihroposophical Society. Ants. 107

Anuradhapura Apaches, and s

1

30

Aphrodisiacs. 99

horns, 128, 129, 130; in Mexico, 131;

105;

Aspens. 96. See also Trees

and moon watching, 130-131; and morphic fields. 128; in Netherlands, 130: and pesticides. 131; and Rudolf

sions. 105

Cathedral Rock, 65

Steiner. 128-129, 129-130, 131; in Unit-

Caves: importance

Astronomy, 54 Asvattha: and bo trees. 83; and Hindus. 93-95. See also World trees Athena (goddess), 79 Atoms, defined. 51 Augustine. Saint. 80 Aurameter. 136 Aurora borealis. See Northern lights Austin, Stephen F., 99 Australian Aborigines. 50 Avalon, 92 Avicenna. 58 Aztecs: and morning-glory seeds, 101: and Mother Goddess, 26; and sacrifices, 26; and teonanactl. 101

Apple

14. flight of.

trees.

1

and

oracles. 54;

Cherokees. 100 See also American Indi-

ans Ch I See Qi

Chikxmg 106 Chimney. 62

Anuradhapura (Ceylon), 83: and Asvattha 83; and Buddhists, 83; and Gautama Buddha. 77; and Hindus,

Chimpanzees 69 See

Boynton Canyon. 65 BraJuna the Creator (god). 93

Christ crucifixion

Backster Cleve and Eldon Byrd. 108; and John Kmetz. 108-109; and plant con-

Broman. Francis. 1 10 Bromo, Mount, 68-69

of, 95; and Gethsemand Golgotha. 27 Christians and fig trees. 77

Brule Sioux, 101 See also American Indi-

Chunngas defined 50

trees. &3. in

83.

sciousness, 107-109: and polygraph

machines, 107-/09 Bacon. Francis 58 Baghdad (Iraq), design of, 33 Ba-gua, 117 Baia. 62 Bali, rice farming on, 132 Ball lightning, 70 See also Lightning Bank of China 35 Bantu society 53 Banyans. 82. and Hindus. 82. in India, 77: shnu 82 See also Trees Baobabs. 84-85 See also Trees Baptism and floods. 74-76

See also Trees

76 J 03 Byrd Eldon. 108

Clemens. Samuel (a k a Mark Twain). 63 Climate and continental drift. 64-66; defined 64 and ice ages. 64 Collective unconscious. 51 Comanches. 101 See also American Indians Combustion defined. 66

Caddy Peter and devas, 134-135; and Findhom Foundation. 133-134; and Landscape Angel, 135: quoted. 134-135 Caesalpino. Andrea, and botany. 102-103 Cairo (Egypt),

fig

trees in, 77

planting, 131

Compass. 113 drift and Francis Bacon 58: and climate 64-66 and Alfred We-

Continental

Calvar Campbell, Joseph 26 Canada, biodynamic farming in. 130 Carlson, Dan experiments of. 132-133; and farming, 132-133 and Michael Holtz, 133 in Korea 131-132 quoted

and T C Singh. 132 Camac, ruins at 57. 58 Carver. George Washington, 104, ba. ground of, 105; and botany. 105; and 133.

•

140

Companion

Constable John, quoted. 104

California earthquakes in 59-60

'roposophi-

12-13

Clay 58

c

100

in,

Burial.

Caddy. Eileen. 133