Ley Lines were thought up, or discovered, by
Alfred Watkins author of the 1925 book '
The Old Straight Track' and the later '
Early British Trackways'. He believed that they were an
ancient network of tracks for
prehistoric travellers. He explained that they ran between
sacred sites and places of power--
standing stones,
burial sites, and
settlements were constructed along the lines, and particularly at
junctions of multiple leys.
There was a brief wave of
enthusiasm for this theory, and clubs were founded all over the country to explore ley lines and their significance. The fad soon faded.
The ideas were revived in the sixties and since, and are common amongst those who cherish
crystals and take
crop circles as signs from the
Alien Gods. In more recent years, people have associated ley lines not with
travel, but with
psychic power,
spirits,
fairies, or
dreamtracks. (This strand of belief started in 1936, with the occultist
Dion Fortune. Ties with
UFOs only began when UFOs became fashionable.) There have been attempts to link these ideas in with ceremonial sites and practices around the world (e.g. the australian
songlines). Modern believers get very excited by the imagined links to
shamanistic practices, and the ideas of spirit paths, and try to explain that Watkins was also discussing
Native American spirit roads, not just flattened
meadows in England.
Even magazines like '
The Ley Hunter' struggle to make the links they desire:
Nobody knows for sure, but it seems that earlier peoples considered that straight landscape lines to facilitate the passage of spirits. Research by Paul Devereux and Nigel Pennick has revealed that a history of the straight landscape line can be seen in which it moved from being a sacred or magical thing into the secular sphere. Leys, old straight tracks and "terrain oblivious lines" or whatever you want to call them, reveal a deep mystery lodged as much in the human psyche as in the landscape. Current research is revealing more and more examples of linear trackways, roads, paths and mythological routes which are connected to the dead, spirits of the dead and spirit travel.
Deveraux's ten years of research, known as
The Dragon Project, demonstrated there were no special
energies or effects along ley lines. The research was rigorous: it employed dozens of amateur
dowsers,
psychics,
sensitives and
spirit photographers. Even those looking for proof could not find it.
It's easy enough to find a ley line: take an
Ordinance Survey Map, a
pencil and a
ruler. Find a few significant
ancient sites, and start drawing lines between them. Britain is littered with traces of ancient settlements: draw a line long enough and it will cross through dozens of them.
Once you have found a set of nice straight lines that look attractive, go to the area and start walking around. Look for features in the
landscape:
notches in the hills that line up with your point of view as you hike along the path,
interesting rock formations, or woods that keep your path straight. Check to see if there is any flattening in the path you are walking. (If not, stamp extra hard to leave a trail to convince others who follow your path.)
If ley lines are remnants of
Stone Age tourism, you would assume that they are the shortest route between two points. Looking at maps of 'established' ley lines, however, this only holds if prehistoric man had
the power of flight: some of the routes are impossible to walk.
Ley lines are
fiction.