THE FUTURE HAS AN ANCIENT HEART 

The True, the Good and the Beautiful in Megalithic Culture

       

 © Xavier de la Huerga 2024

Fully comprehending that sacred geometry and the orbital patterns in our solar system; mathematics and the vibrational architecture of music; the size and the shape of the earth, the metrology derived from it and the proportions in the human body are ALL not just interconnected, but in fact, seamlessly integrated as a harmonious whole, triggers in most human beings a massive epiphany, feelings of reassurance and a tremendous sense of purpose and meaning arising from the realization that we are immersed in an intelligent, living, sentient Cosmos that is not alien or separated from the human soul. 

If, on top of this, you add the fact that this continuum of knowledge was discovered, fully understood and implemented thousands of years ago by our ancestors, the end result is nothing short of mind blowing and to a great extent, perplexing. We are faced with a great, multifaceted mystery from the distant past concerning the roots of human nature. Over time, if the depths of the megalithic astrogeomantic canon are pursued with perseverance, the life-changing properties of this knowledge become patent and gradually, a subtle but powerful perceptual shift occurs in those who study and practice it. This change itself is a clue that begins to answer some of the many questions posed by the immense achievements of our enigmatic ancestors.

Experiencing that harmonious cosmic whole, not by intellectualizing about it, but by re-establishing the broken connections in our awareness through the study and practice of astrogeomancy, invokes the presence of the sacred, the raw spiritual core of reality, the Great Cosmic Mystery as a pervasive, ever-present dimension in life. The ongoing spiritualization of the material and the materialization of the spiritual unveiled by this fusion of the scientific and the sacred, is invariably accompanied by the expression of beauty. 

This triad of Science, Spirituality and Art in all astrogeomantic designs is also in direct correlation to the three utmost qualities pursued by the Mystery Schools of antiquity; the True (Science), the Good (Spirituality), and the Beautiful (Art). Whatever you do, it must be true and serve to spread truth in the world, it also must be done for the good of others and for your own good and it must result in beautiful deeds and works.

So, we could say that astrogeomantic knowledge leads human beings to act in the world as molecules in a crystalline lattice aligning themselves along lines of force in space. However, this analogy doesn't refer to the spatial arrangement of human beings! But to psycho-geometric patterns of behavior that conform to the invisible lines of Cosmic Will-Force that coalesce in the morphic field of the Earth. 

Astrogeomancy compels one to harmonize space; first inner space, then the space around oneself; artificial, human-made space as well as natural space. The whole biosphere is considered to be the ultimate objective, the biospheric envelope is our living home and must be mended, healed, and fully restored to homeostatic* harmony. Unsurprisingly, the key to spatial harmonization is the temporal dimension, which takes us to “outer space”; for it is the exoplanetary cosmic environment - the heavenly realm - that determine our structuring and measurement of time. 

*Homeostasis - A state of equilibrium, as in an organism or cell, maintained by self-regulating processes.

The root of the word “temple” (templum) is to be found in the word “time” (tempus). The concept of a temple originates in the idea of a space where time can be measured and experienced directly as an earthly, temporary expression of eternity, which "dwells in the heavens". This is what originally made a temple’s space a sacred space. Many ancient temples are indeed microcosmic portrayals of heaven. Thus, the first temples were always astronomically oriented, so that at significant times the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the rest of the stellar cohort would be observed with the necessary accuracy to understand and measure their rhythms, grounding them in the architecture and weaving them through the calendar into human lives. This was done by the placement of elements within the temple in such a way that the movements of heavenly bodies were measured against a fixed point anchored in the earth; an earthly backdrop such as a mountain top, other salient feature in the horizon or a standing stone acting; such markers would determine the orientation of the temple and thus, the consummation of the hieros gamos, the sacred marriage of Heaven and Earth was achieved.

These very first temples of humankind that we are talking about have come to be known nowadays mostly as “megalithic monuments”, "stone circles", "alignments" and other classifications. Their planet-wide distribution, sheer numbers, size and time scale of construction make one think that the megalithic builders were aiming to turn the whole of the Earth into a temple! Is that what we are seeing here? Not a process of “civilization”, but “templization”?

Conclusion

Carlo Levi said once that “the future has an ancient heart”. Does the future of humankind and its biospheric home pass through the renewal and expansion of that ancient network of temples? Perhaps, but what we are dealing with here seems to be more complex than a process of "templization", since these structures also fulfilled a scientific role and were simultaneously imbued with primeval aesthetic qualities. So, is the destiny of the Earth to become a Living Cosmic Temple, a Transcendent Scientific Instrument and an Eternally Evolving Work of Art?

ASTROGEOMANCY COURSES IN 2024

THE PURPOSE OF ASTROGEOMANCY 

A Call to Action for Earth Magicians and Healers

© Xavier de la Huerga 2024

What is Astrogeomancy?

Astrogeomancy is a new word for the ongoing contemporary reconstruction of the nameless prehistoric science behind the tens of thousands of megalithic* structures built all over the world during a span of some 8,000 years; from the Mesolithic, through the entire Neolithic period, to the end of the Bronze Age and in some regions, well into the Iron Age. Among these structures are some of the greatest monumental complexes ever built; the Great Pyramid, Stonehenge, Carnac, Gobekli Tepe or Sacsayhuaman. The reconstruction of the ancient megalithic science through research, study and - very importantly - its active implementation, is an urgent duty because the megalithic monuments are nothing less than the material products of a spiritual-metaphysical technology, whose intended effect is to reunite the Human Soul with the Earthly and the Cosmic realms, harmonising and healing their relationship in the process - a long overdue assignment, in view of the self-destructive path towards biospheric obliteration currently pursued in our alienation and ignorance of our inescapable interdependence and indeed, inherent unity with those two realms.

Whilst we cannot pretend to know all the answers yet to why and how all the megalithic monuments were built, it is the author's contention that at this time in human history we know enough to start proactively applying the principles at work and that, in fact, the final answers to the mysteries of our megalithic past will only come when we do so.   

*Megalithic. From the Greek "mega" meaning "great" and "lithos" meaning"stone". Is a term applied generically to ancient structures conformed by unreasonably big stones, as opposed to manageable blocks or bricks, which in itself generates one of the biggest why's. Here, obviously, size matters! In fact, the term megalithic is not very accurate, since many of the so-called "megalithic monuments" were actually made of wooden posts (these could be called "megadendric"), whilst other structures were built by sculpting the landscape, digging up and moving around enormous masses of soil and debris into what are known as earthworks, mounds and ditches.

A Different Mode of Perception

When looking deep into the body of knowledge embedded into megalithic monuments, it soon becomes apparent that they fulfilled multiple functions. The holistic vision behind their design, resulting from what must have been experienced by the builders as a mode of perception unified with the cosmos, endowed these ancient masterworks with scientific, spiritual and aesthetic functions encompassing the full spectrum of operations that nourish the human soul. This happens spontaneously when we awaken to the reality of our intrinsic unity with the world. Then, intuition with its infinitely fast information processing rate, merges with the slower linear thought processes of reason to reveal a primordial continuum of knowledge. 

From the perspective of our current disintegrative mode of perception and the resultant alienation of humankind from the natural world – including the cosmic environment - , we can only comprehend this primordial continuum of knowing as the sum or synthesis of distinct elements, when in fact, it is not. It is a seamless pre-existing whole without categories, in which different informational fields flow into each other in seamless continuity, feeding back into endless correlations among themselves, following the acausal principle of synchronicity and the harmonic laws that preside over the reconciliation of opposites. From this perceptual mode, there are no boundaries between what we nowadays call astronomy, geometry, spirituality, musical theory, metrology, artistic expression or mythology; they all merge in a fluid continuum. These categories of knowing only arose gradually over millennia, out of a broken, atomistic perception of reality, due to a change in the way our two cerebral hemispheres work.

Thus, the ancient megalithic monuments fulfil not just eminently practical functions, such as tracking calendrical cycles, facilitating astronomical observations, or serving as permanent repositories of geometric knowledge; but they have a spiritual dimension, which manifests in their roles as temples, sacred spaces dedicated to ritual and ceremony, burial and birthing, as well as accomplishing the operational intertwining of Heaven and Earth. These two are happily married within their very architecture, astronomical orientations, measures and shapes, as a result of their meaningful placements across the globe and in their geometrical relationships to each other - and not just symbolically, by virtue of these arrangements, the Earth's subtle telluric energy fields are tapped into and harmonised in alignment with cosmic archetypal forces -. If, besides all of the above, we recognize that megalithic monuments are timeless works of art that often achieve superlative expressions of beauty, then it becomes clear that the primordial, universal and perennial ideals of the True (field of science), the Good (realm of spirituality) and the Beautiful (artistic expression) are found simultaneously embodied in every megalithic masterwork.

From Inner Space to Outer Space

The study and practice of astrogeomancy first yields results upon the soul and mind of those who undertake it. Through the gradual re-integration of its various disciplines into the primordial continuum of knowing from which they arise, there happens a reverse-engineering towards that mode of unified perception which nowadays is so lacking in most human beings. Thus, the practitioner's inner space is the first beneficiary of the inherent harmonisation, balance and awareness of unity brought about by astrogeomantic activity.

Then, there is the application of astrogeomancy to the design and creation of physical spaces, or to the modification of already existing ones; from an altar arrangement, a bedroom, a whole building, or a garden, to the entire layout of a settlement. It is also applied to objects, such as furniture pieces, pottery, tools, musical instruments, works of art, etc. This brings about the same kind of harmonic alignment that happens at an inner individual level - bridging the microcosmic and the macrocosmic -, but this time it shapes functional spaces and objects, imbuing the secular and the practical with the sacred and the transcendent.

Finally, and beyond the above two purposes of astrogeomantic implementation, comes what could well be described as the most essential purpose of the ancient astrogeomantic canon; that which gave rise to the gigantic worldwide network of megalithic structures and could well be labeled as the enactment of earth magic.

Earth Magic

There are tens of thousands of megalithic structures spanning the beautiful face of Mother Earth. Only in western Europe, more than 35,000 have been registered so far. Many of them are characterized by arrangements of standing stones in the shape of circles, ovals, ellipses, rectangles, polygons and long lines. There are also extensive networks of mysteriously dead-on straight roads, massive geoglyphs, miriads of mounds, pyramids of various shapes, truncated cones, barrows, dolmens, processional avenues and then, those which defy description, coming sometimes under generic terms like “earthworks”, or mistakenly called “forts” or “cursus” (race course), due to the usage they were put to by those who came thousands of years after they were built and knew nothing about their true purposes. Their meaningful placement upon the Earth in relation to the landscape and to each other, over extremely long distances, conforming to sophisticated geometries with great precision, indicate that at the planetary scale, monumental megalithic functionality must be understood in a profoundly esoteric light. 

Some have talked about “earth acupuncture”. This is a good analogy, since the Earth and the human body share in more than one way their composition. For example, the ratio of water to landmass on planet Earth is identical to that of water to solid matter in a human child's body (70%). This analogy is extended further to the metaphysical when it is postulated that both the Earth and the Human body possess a grid of meridians that channel the flow of subtle energies; as well as nodes, chakras or centres where this energies concentrate and radiate from. If the flow is blocked and disease ensues, the use of acupuncture helps to break the blockages and restore homeostasis - whole body harmony -. 

Thus, it could be stated that the greater purpose of astrogeomancy is the enactment of what could be called a form of earth magic aimed at healing and easing all suffering and unnecessary destruction upon the whole of the Earth, at every level; telluric harmonisation and planetary homeostasis for world peace, progress and collective enlightenment; beautification and restoration of the biosphere; the healing of all nations and eventually, the banishment of war. Ultimately leading to the spiritualization of matter and to the materialization of spirit.

The Great Megalithic Rebuild

To conclude, it is imperative that we attempt to replicate what was done by megalithic builders and implement it across the Earth in order to expand, renew and complement the ruined worldwide web of megalithic complexes that started being operative at the end of the last Ice Age. To the great level of destruction suffered through natural forces and specially at human hands, there has to be added the fact that many of the ancient sites have lost the accuracy of their solar and stellar alignments due to the Earth's cycle of axial tilt. It is time to restore the megalithic web with new structures guided by the same ancient principles. The return to a mode of unified perception, which astrogeomancy helps to attain, automatically brings one into an immersive estate with the environment, not just nature, but also the human-made world. From that place, policies of endless extraction and exploitation of resources - both planetary and social – become unthinkable, the painful awareness of their pointlessness and inefficiency doesn't allow for their continuity. This makes astrogeomancy a tool for recovery and survival, not only of our lost ancient cultural and spiritual heritage, but of the biosphere itself, including the most destructive and most creative of all species borne therein.

 

 

THE ELEMENTS OF ASTROGEOMANCY (II)

 Introduction to Sacred Metrology and its Geodetic and Harmonic Correlations

         © Xavier de la Huerga 2024

In the first part of this article, we have seen how four numerical sciences; arythmetic, geometry, astronomy and harmony were taught from the beginning of the Middle Ages and until the Renaissance under the name of Quadrivium. Disconcertingly, we can find these four sciences applied with a prodigious level of sophistication in megalithic monuments, thousands of years before Plato - and later Boetius - established them as the basis for the European mediaeval education system.

In this second instalment we will explore two more elements of the astrogeomantic canon put into practice by the megalithic builders: metrology and geodesy, the sciences dealing with measurement and with the shape and size of the Earth. Their use is evident in the architecture, dimensions, orientation and geographic positioning of all megalithic monuments. Although there is no record that these two were ever imparted together with the four liberating arts of the Quadrivium during the Middle Ages, there are profound connections between them and indeed they could be considered as directly related to geometry, if we attend to the very etymology of the word. All of this points to a primordial continuum of knowledge of which all of these disciplines seem to be inseparable facets. In fact, we are going to see later how the numerical structure of music - one of the Quadrivium pillars - is very much at the core of the ancient system of sacred metrology. 

The Miraculous Resurrection of Sacred Metrology

Nowadays, only a handful of nations hold to their ancient systems of measurement; Liberia, Myanmar and a few island states in the Pacific. In the UK, Canada and the US, a combination of the metric and the imperial system still coexist, the latter being a vestige of the ancient system of measurement. Other than that, the whole world nowadays uses the metric system exclusively and the ancient units of measurement are all but forgotten. In fact, for many centuries the overarching logarithmic structure that constitutes the numerical skeleton of ancient metrology was completely lost to memory until its miraculous rediscovery by John Michell in 1981, when he deciphered the core elements of the ancient system, and the subsequent painstaking reconstruction work done by John Neal over several decades. With this outstanding breakthrough, also came the realisation that the ancient system had once been used across the whole planet, by most if not all the peoples of the earth. This universality and the fact that it is a single unified numerical code are two of the great mysteries regarding its nature and origins.

Fig. 1 - "Cong tubes" belonging to the neolithic Liangzhu culture in China (5,300 years old) are among the oldest metrological artefacts known. Their markings register length units used in other parts of the world; digits, feet and cubits of various denominations.

Thanks to this timely rediscovery, we can again put into practice this forgotten prehistoric science that in contrast to the current modern international system is indeed deserving of being called a liberating art, since the Napoleon-imposed metrification is comparable to the suppression of all the languages of humankind in exchange for the adoption of a "lingua franca", whereas ancient metrology offers the whole gamut of the idiomatic spectrum, for it is in fact, an aspect of the primordial and universal language of number that preceded the metaphorical "confusion of tongues" at the Tower of Babel.

The Structure of the Ancient Metrological System

Figure 2, below (based on the work of John Neal, see bibliography) offers a very basic and incomplete description, but it is enough to show the underlying structure of ancient sacred metrology, which is a system of modules integrated by means of unit fractions. In the first column we see the names of some of the different feet, which are the basic units around which all the other modules develop. Their names only reflect an association with a geographic region or nation, it doesn't mean that they were invented by those nations, but have been associated with those parts of the world because of their frequent usage there. It is important to understand that all the modules are without exception part of one single integrated metrological system, utilised globally and whose origins go back to at least 7,000 years¹ and therefore predate any concept of nation.

 

Figure 2. The different micro-variations of the foot are always given by ratios that can be expressed as a series of unit fractions. For example, the Iberian and Assyrian feet are related as 63/64 (0,9 : 63/64 = 0,9142857), and the Iberian is 4/5 of the Royal Egyptian (0,9142857 : 4/5 = 1,1428571) 

In the second column are depicted the variations in length of the different feet, going from 0.9 to 1.16667, with the English/Greek foot determining the central value, or unity, of the entire system. In fact, the integrated structure and the exact nature of the system only makes sense and becomes visible when using values derived from the decimal division of the English foot, as seen in the above table. Using centimetre and millimetre, or the English foot in its modern duodecimal subdivision into inches will destroy the numerical coherence of the system, making undetectable the connective fractions essential for the understanding of its structure.

Moreover, each one of the feet is subjected to eight micro-variations governed by the fractions 175/176, 440/441 and 125/126. These fractions have the property of maintaining whole number integrity between diameter and perimeter of a circle when using values for Pi rationalised as 864/265, 25/8 or 22/7; as well as between the sides and diagonal of a square (√2) when using certain combinations of feet and cubits belonging to different modules. This property of the system satisfies a practical as well as a symbolic function, whole numbers are essential to the effective application of sacred geometry, which is the natural partner of sacred metrology. But, as we will see next, the fractions that determine the micro-variations have also a cosmological dimension. Uncannily, they are exactly the same ones that express the amount by which the shape of the Earth deviates from being a perfect sphere!

1 - Howard Crowhurst has found a mass of incontrovertible evidence that proves the use of the ancient metrological system in the megalithic complex of Carnac (France), whose oldest construction phase dates back to 7,000 years ago. See bibliography at the end of this article.

Sacred Metrology and Geodesy

As it has been said above, geodesy is the science that deals with the shape and dimensions of the Earth, whereas metrology addresses measurement and its applications. Both are inextricably related, as traditionally and universally the basic units of any measurement system are directly related to the size of the earth. Even the modern metre was originally and mistakenly defined as the ten millionth part of the Earth´s quadrant (the realization that this measurement was in error came too late, when the metre had already been adopted). In fact, it is the ancient Belgic yard of 3.284582ft that, thousands of years before the metre, embodied a perfectly accurate subdivision of the same ten millionth part of the quadrant that the French surveyors tried to unsuccessfully achieve at the end of the 18th century. 

Indeed, the ancient system of metrology is fundamentally a geodetic system. This not only makes sense, but possesses a profound philosophical dimension, since it is through the agency of measurement that both spiritual and utilitarian endeavours such as road-making, settlement-building, trading standards, secular and sacred architecture, or works of art become directly connected with the actual shape and size of our Cosmic Home and Temple, the Earth.

Terrestrial Harmonics

The shape of the Earth is that of a flattened sphere at the poles, which results in the different degrees of latitude becoming longer as they go from the equator towards the poles. We can see in the image below how these differences in size generate the very same fractions that govern the micro-variations between the modules of ancient sacred metrology. For example, parallel 38^o measures 364,126.032 feet and parallel 50^o is 364,953.6 feet long, when we divide these two between each other we get 0.9977324, which in fractional form is expressed as 440/441 (440:441 = 0.9977324).

Now, a geographic degree of latitude is always by definition 360,000 feet long, and if we divide the number of feet at, let's say latitude 38^o between 360,000, we get a foot of 1,0114612 English feet and this is the micro-variation known as Root Geographic. In the same way, when the 50^o of latitude is divided between 360,000 the result is 1.013760, another micro-variation of the English foot known as Standard Geographic. How is it possible that the logarithmic micro-variations of sacred metrology modules correspond to the variations in size of latitude degrees at the planetary scale? This is because the amount of flattening across the Earth spheroid "is not arbitrary in its numerical composition, but exhibits a numerico-geometrical regularity" (J. Neal. Ancient Metrology Vol. I). 

This type of "numerico-geometrical" resonance, or coherence that extends across different scales and a range of phenomena (the harmonic architecture of music, planetary orbital patterns, human anatomy, etc) could be defined as a fractal, or holographic property inherent in the fabric of the universe and stands as a proof that the megalithic metrological system, in its enormous multidimensional complexity, cannot have been invented, but must have been discovered (or as some millenary traditions hold; "received"). Perhaps through experimentation with number from a very different kind of awareness to the one we have nowadays, a mode of unified perception with the cosmos, that our ancestors could have accessed thousands of years ago. A perceptual mode that maybe can be regained through the study of the megalithic science as a unified whole and specially, through its practice.

Musical Harmonics

There is also a precise correspondence between certain musical intervals and the modules of sacred metrology. The following table (also based on J. Neal's work) shows a few examples.

As we see above, the values of the quotients (in green) between the harmonic intervals are identical with the values of the six metrological modules shown here expressed in fractions of the English foot. This impressive harmonic correlation would have been invisible if we had used the metre and suggests that the length of the Greek/English foot (30.479 cmts), was originally determined from the generation of a tone; a musical note. Perhaps through an instrument such as Pythagoras' monochord, whose mobile fret produces a series of correspondences between notes and physical lengths. On the other hand, the source of the original tone might be found in China, where the 5,000 year old tale about the creation of the ancient metrology system tells us that it was based upon the length of the huangzhong flute.

Practical Application

One of the obvious uses of understanding the numerical language of sacred metrology, is the ability to interpret the wisdom and knowledge encapsulated into the dimensions of the many monuments built with it, using it as a tool for archaeological and philosophical investigation. On the other hand, there is the option of transmitting that wisdom through its creative application in the arts, the design of objects, or the construction of spaces, buildings and whole settlements. Thus, helping to regenerate and re-sacralise our ailing societies.

It's been a daunting challenge to try to articulate coherently within the succinct format of this blog an accesible and clear description of the ancient metrological system, its complexities and intricate structure. This has been done in the hope to reach out to an audience that resonates with this subject, in order to arise their curiosity, inspire and motivate them to undertake its study and practice. Architects, artists, engineers, the mystic and the scientist, and ultimately all of humankind will benefit from the understanding and re-adoption of the ancient system of sacred metrology.

For those who already study and practice sacred geometry, sacred metrology is the missing link that can endow projects with a primordial potency that is impossible to express by using the metric system alone. Its integration with the other elements of the astrogeomantic canon will imbue any structure or space with the harmonic essence that our ancestors implemented through their vision of the cosmo-terrestrial order. Somehow, they perhaps intuited that their descendants, thousands of years later, would live in an age devoid of that vision and thus, codified it into their monuments in order to provide the keys that would allow us to remember, through the universal and eternal language of number, the way back home. 

References

John Michell - Ancient Metrology: The Dimensions of Stonehenge and of the Whole World as Therein Symbolised

John Neal - All Done With Mirrors, Ancient Metrology Vol I, Ancient Metrology Vol. II

Howard Crowhurst - Carnac - The alignments