Bob Rickard explores the background behind the detailed scientific and experiential study of Britain’s ancient sacred sites
The Powers Of Ancient And Sacred Places
Paul Devereux
Daily Grail Publishing 2022
Pb, 294pp, £14.99, ISBN 9780645209419
One of the advantages of older age is that it provides a ready perspective on the development of a subject – in this case the importance of certain places to our ancient ancestors. Paul Devereux will be known to most FT readers as the venerable editor of The Ley Hunter before he progressed into more academic projects. Before Paul took over from its founder Paul Screeton in 1976, he was an early supporter of the young FT.
As editor of The Ley Hunter, Paul was particularly struck by the predominance of mystical and psychical approaches to the subject and determined to encourage more analysis and documentation of its very real aspects.
This approach was signalled by his very first contribution to FT, in 1975. Aided by Andy York, Paul wrote a 25-page, two-part study of the anomalous phenomena of his home county of Nottinghamshire (see “Portrait of a Fault Area” in FT11:5-12+14-18, 12:8-20). For the first time in FT – and English fortean studies – it broke new ground by focusing upon a distinct geographical, geological and cultural area to study the relationships, if any, between the widest possible range of unusual subjects.
Paul brought together data from geological and magnetic activity, reports of UFOs and hauntings, meteorology, meteorites, tales of supernatural or psychical events and experiences, forteana and, of course, ancient tracks and pathways.
In 1977, Paul Devereux was instrumental in the founding of the Dragon Project, which gave a more rigorous structure to all the associated fields of research, and this new book makes a brave and mature assessment of the pioneering work over the intervening years.
Depending (initially) upon private donations and unpaid volunteers, the Dragon Project set out to map, measure and record every conceivable aspect of ancient sites. These were not limited to fault lines and standing stones but included any ancient location related to ritual and reverence, the structure of symbols and the mysteries of measurement and construction, and associated lighting and light phenomena.
Studying acoustics of burial chambers, for example, emerged from the recognition of such locations for the use of initiation, meditation, dreaming, healing and other socially important rites.
In recent years the Dragon Project’s important discoveries have consequently changed focus slightly, to include aspects of the subjective
