The idea that the great stones themselves contain some manner of psychic energy goes back a long time. However, archaeologist and respected psychic researcher T. C. Lethbridge brought respectability by pointing out that many people, himself included, are able to sense some electric-like energy emanating from certain Megalithic stones. (4) Perhaps the most interesting theory put forward in convincing style comes from the authority on dowsing, Tom Graves. In his book published in the late 70s, Needles of Stone, Graves advocates that there are channels of terrestrial energy running across the globe and that these are the acupuncture lines of the earth. Whereas the acupuncturist inserts needles into the flesh of a patient in order to heal the body, the Megalithic peoples inserted stones into the earth in order to improve their quality of life. (5)
Many other imaginative theories have been advanced to explore the purpose of the Megalithic monuments. Not least amongst them are those putting forward the idea that in them we have evidence of extra-terrestrial visitations. John Michell, for example, in his book The Flying Saucer Vision, reproduces a picture of Stonehenge reconstructed from the Ministry of Works guide book showing how it would have originally looked from the air, suggesting that it appears like the popular representation of a UFO. (6)
Whatever the true purpose of the Megalithic monuments, one thing is certain about the people who built them. Archaeology has shown us evidence of an extremely organised and peaceful society, and a society, for its long duration, free from war. Their early monuments or communal gathering and living areas do not appear to have been fortified (whatever the true purpose of the great ditch and earth bank at Avebury, archaeologists are certain that it was not defensive), and there is an absence of weapons suitable for anything other than hunting.
So what happened to this harmonious civilisation, which gave way to the warring tribes that followed it? A trend that was to span the next three and a half thousand years. What brought about the end of the Megalithic culture which had lasted just as long?
In recent years, scientists have been able to trace prehistoric weather patterns by studying the remains of animal and plant life discovered at sites of different periods. The result of this work has given a fairly comprehensive view of climatic conditions throughout this period. Between about 4000 BC and 1400BC, the weather in the British Isles and North Western Europe had been warm and fairly dry (the Sub-Boreal period). However, about 1400 BC there was a dramatic change of climate, bringing about colder and wetter conditions, which have persisted pretty much unaltered until the present day (the Sub-Atlantic period).
This dramatic change of climate certainly created many changes in life style. Farming became more difficult and the relatively easy manner of living that gave them time to dwell upon more spiritual undertakings went with it. The onus was now on survival, and substantial dwelling sites became more desirable.
From 1400 BC onwards, the great Megalithic constructions and stone circles were no longer built in Northern Europe and the British Isles. The Megalithic culture quickly gave way to what has become known as the Wessex culture, and the contents of the graves discovered from this period suggest the existence of a warrior elite unknown before this time.
The psychic messages, which originally began with the Joanna communications, told us that some of the last Megalithic people in the British Isles left this country and came eventually to Akhenaten’s Egypt. As we have previously mentioned, since the first messages we have been able to discover that this could have been possible. The climate changed in Northern Europe between 1500 and 1400 BC and with it no more of the great Megalithic monuments were constructed.
Turning to Ancient Egypt, the task of tracing its history is considerably easier. Here there are hieroglyphic and other forms of writing that well record much of what took place. Dating is open to a small margin of speculation, but the Pharaoh Akhenaten is generally considered to have lived and died somewhere between 1400 and 1350 BC.
Apart from what the psychic messages told us, it is safe to assume that the select ruling priesthood in the British Isles around 1400 BC were looking on in dismay as their well-organised society rapidly crumbled and fell apart. No more great monuments or stone circles were built and those that existed fell into disuse. Presumably, they must have been powerless to prevent the new warrior elite from taking over as the ruling body. A new type of aristocracy for a new age. The old priesthood could no longer offer the people what the new environment demanded that they require. Conditions had become harsher, people became more quarrelsome and what little could be scraped together was jealously guarded. The fertile areas were occupied and defended against others who might be less fortunate. Separate tribes quickly sprang up that before too long began to fight with one another.
Surely the priesthood would not have wished for their great knowledge to disappear forever. It is almost certain that they would have joined in the migrations, southwards towards warmer areas, that archaeology has shown took place around 1400 BC.
Whatever knowledge the priesthood possessed, it is doubtful if it had a place in a warmongering society. It is reasonable to assume that they would have travelled far and wide looking for a land in which to settle, whose inhabitants would accept and not abuse what they had to offer. Europe had become an unsettled place, although civilisation remained around the Mediterranean. But of the lands in the Middle East, only in Akhenaten’s Egypt would they have seen any sign of a peaceful, harmonious all-encompassing religion with which they would have had any empathy.
The most likely date for Akhenaten to have become pharaoh is 1367 BC. (7) His precise age on becoming king is not known, but he is thought to have been a young man. It was not long after he ascended to the throne that he announced a sweeping religious reform and replaced the supreme god Amon with the god Aten. This, however, was to cause far more upset than just annoying the priests of Amon. Amon had been simply one of the great many gods worshipped for various reasons throughout Egypt. As in later Classical Greece and Imperial Rome, there were many gods who had their individual jurisdictions over just about everything and anything we can imagine; besides which there were also many local gods worshipped in provincial areas. Amon was merely something like the father of the gods, as Jupiter would be to the Romans, or Zeus to the Greeks. We must not, therefore, assume there was a national Amon religion as such.
Aten was already a god in Egyptian religion, but Akhenaten did not simply proclaim him the supreme god, he proclaimed him the only god. Just prior to Akhenaten’s time Aten was represented as a human being with a falcon’s head, but after the first five years of his reign, Akhenaten replaced it with the Sun disc, its rays extending and ending in hands holding the Ankh (the symbol of life). No Egyptian god had ever been represented in such an abstract manner. Even the nature gods had been given a human body. Whether Akhenaten saw the sun as god in itself or as merely a visible symbol of god’s all-encompassing power is difficult to establish, but the abolition of Aten being represented in iconic form, and the idea of his omnipresence that we glean from Akhenaten’s poems, has much in common with the later monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Whatever the true nature of Akhenaten’s Atenism, it was a concept far in advance of its time - at least in the Mediterranean area - and would seem to have been the world’s first recorded monotheistic religion.
What is certain about Akhenaten himself is that he had an unusually strong feeling for nature and all her creatures. He banned human sacrifices and even animals were no longer permitted to be hunted for pleasure. Other Pharaohs had always described themselves as ferocious and vengeful, but Akhenaten broke from this tradition. Neither did he allow himself to be depicted in a military setting as did his predecessors and those who followed him on the throne of Egypt.
It is therefore not difficult for us to see why the Megalithic priesthood may have seen in Akhenaten the qualities they were looking for.
From the psychic messages we have received it is difficult to work out if Akhenaten’s Atenis
m was the result of his being influenced by the Megalithic priests, or if they bequeathed him the knowledge once Atenism had been established.
Akhenaten built no stone circles, and it is impossible to say historically or archaeologically whether or not he had been influenced by the Megalithic people, since we do not know what they believed. However, it must have been somewhat similar. The peace-loving ideals, harmony with nature, and exaltation of the sun are common to both groups. The fact that Akhenaten never started a programme of stone-circle building is by no means indicative. If he had inherited the knowledge from the Megalithic priests, then it is logical to assume that the more advanced Egyptian technology would have made it unnecessary, even had he incorporated their ideas.
The malefic force (or intelligence) came into existence, so the psychic messages told us, with the last of the Megalithic peoples, and it appears that this above all other considerations was the reason why the Megalithic priesthood needed to pass on their knowledge. But what was this force, and how did it come to exist? Gaynor’s automatic writings suggest that it was not a living intelligence - if living is the right word - as such, but more like a ‘machine’, similar to a computer. Exactly what this means we can only guess. However, we can perhaps make conjecture.
Imagine the Megalithic priesthood being called upon by the people of the British Isles to help them overcome their new hardships. Each individual tribe imploring their support, urging them to use what knowledge they may have possessed to protect them, to side with them and assail their enemies. Assume that their code forbade them to use their knowledge for military purposes, so the warriors took over where the priests had once resided. Perhaps some of the priesthood did attempt to use their power in this way. From Gaynor’s writings, we can deduce that this is what happened, and which created in some unimaginable way the malefic force that was to remain. Somehow, the priesthood prevented a repetition of the same thing. They sought a way of destroying this force and for this purpose eventually created the Stone.
As to where the Stone was fashioned, we have nothing tangible. We must suppose that the Megalithic peoples in the British Isles prior to 1500 BC were not responsible. The Green Stone is clearly not a natural formation. No such stone-cutting or working seems possible with the technology the Neolithic or Bronze Age people had, and no similar stones have been found. On the other hand, the Egyptians of this time had the means; in fact, many precious and semi-precious gems cut in similar fashion to the Meonia Stone originate from Ancient Egypt. (8) We can only surmise therefore that once the Megalithic priests arrived in Egypt, they discovered that the advanced techniques used there enabled them to incorporate their knowledge in a more refined way.
As we have seen, some people suggest that the Megalithic stones held - and still hold - strange powers that could be used for various purposes. Perhaps the priests were able to apply their knowledge and combine forces with the skill of the Egyptian jewellers. Perhaps they were delighted to find that they could utilise the properties of precious stones previously unknown to them. For it has long been believed that precious and semi-precious stones can hold magical power as talismans and amulets.
Returning once again to Akhenaten, why did he fail in establishing his new religion throughout Egypt? Instead of being exalted as a prophet, history laments Akhenaten as the heretic king.
There are a number of reasons why he failed. It was not only the bitter opposition of the priests of Amon that brought about his unpopularity. The whole Atenistic concept carried little weight with the mass of the Egyptian population, fully content in their well-established traditions. To make things worse, Akhenaten did nothing to increase his popularity by further isolating himself from his people. In the fifth year of his reign, he moved his residence from the capital at Thebes to the new city he was building, Akhet-aten, meaning the place where Aten rises, and now called Tel-el-Amarna. Despite his ideals, he considered himself as the only son of God, the chosen one for whom the entire world was created. The name he adopted, Akhenaten, means ‘Incarnation of the Aten’.
But his chief failure was his neglect of the affairs of state. So much did he ignore the events taking place in his country that he eventually made his son-in-law, Smenkhare, co-ruler. As the years went by, the empire that had been greater than ever before at the beginning of Akhenaten’s reign began to crumble.
The priesthood, the noble families, but most importantly the army, finally refused to stand idly by and watch.
Eventually, once the king had departed to his new city, the king’s brother-in-law, Ay, probably the most powerful man in Thebes, decided to move against Akhenaten, and it was not long before he and his followers won Smenkhkare over to their side. There is much speculation about what actually happened next, because many of the inscriptions during Akhenaten’s reign were later disfigured by the Amon priesthood. But it appears that Smenkhkare left Akhet-aten and went to Thebes where he was proclaimed sole king, and Akhenaten was deposed.
Akhenaten’s fate is still something of a mystery. Some say he was poisoned, others that he went into exile, while there are those who believe that he was never, in fact, deposed.
Whatever the truth, it is certain that after reigning for seventeen years Akhenaten was no longer king. After his death or exile, his religion was quickly abandoned by his followers, expecting reprisals, and the new city was left to crumble into dust.
It is at this point that we were told how a group of his followers, perhaps some of the original Megalithic priests, or their successors, returned to the British Isles where they founded a colony in what is now central England.
Once again from a subsequent study of British prehistory, this decision to site their secret community in central England appears feasible. If we look at the map of the British Isles showing the distribution of settlements and other ‘ceremonial’ sites during and just after the Megalithic period, we see that a large area in central England was evidently unoccupied, mainly because at the time it was heavily forested. If they had to return to the British Isles what better place to suit their purpose, a central yet isolated position. Unfortunately, however, no Egyptian remains have yet been unearthed.
We next take up the history of this secret colony some centuries later, when we were told how some early Celtic migrants from Europe had joined them and thereby increased their numbers. We were informed that the colony had now been fortified and that a great warrior queen arose among them, who built a powerful nation throughout central England in order to safeguard their knowledge.
Once again, the idea is possible. As we have already stated, the age of Berry Ring has not yet been established, but there are many such hill forts throughout the country. Hill-top sites defended by banks and ditches that follow the contours of the hill are a classic feature of the Iron Age, from 700 BC until the coming of the Romans in 55 BC.
To find an approximate date for Gwevaraugh, assuming that she ever existed, it must have been some time after 700 BC, since it was then that the Celts first arrived, although some authorities believe that earlier settlers had immigrated as early as 1300 BC.
The original home of the Celts was what is now Bavaria, although there is also speculation that it could have been Hungary. From their home in Central Europe, they spread westward to the Atlantic coast and into Spain, then northwards into the British Isles. They came in small numbers until their major arrival sometime between 700 BC and 600 BC, when they brought with them the Iron Age, and with it a more efficient means of waging large-scale tribal warfare. It would be reasonable to suppose that for Gwevaraugh to have been able to control such a large area she would have to have been aware of these new methods. If she existed, as we were told, then she would probably have established the powerful Cornovii tribe that had become well settled in the area by the time the Romans arrived. For these reasons, a probable date for Gwevaraugh would be between 600-200 BC.
Once again history can tell us nothing of Gwevaraugh or her feats. Prior to the arrival of the Romans there are no
written accounts.
It is important to examine the likelihood of a warrior queen leading a Celtic tribe. There have been renowned warrior women in history, Joan of Arc and the Saxon Queen Ethelfleda to name but two, but they are few and far between. One race in all history is unique in its tradition of women warrior leaders: the Celts.
The Roman writer Ammianus Marcellinus, in the fourth century AD, tells us that women took an active part in combat. Roman history recorded no male enemies in Celtic Britain to compare with the stature of Boudicca and Cartimandua.
Cartimandua ruled the Brigantes of the north, whereas Boudicca ruled the Iceni of Norfolk and East Anglia. And in Ireland too we have the legendary Queen Medb of Connacht.
Boudicca led a powerful rebellion in East Anglia in the seventh decade of the first century, and the Roman writer Dio Cassius gives us an impressive description of her.
She was huge of frame, terrifying of aspect, and with a harsh voice. A great mass of bright red hair fell to her knees, she wore a great twisted golden necklace, and a tunic of many colours, over which was a thick mantle fastened by a brooch.
History, tradition and legend alike echo the high prestige of women in Celtic mythology. There are the Celtic legendary Queens Scáthach and Aífe, as well as Gwenhwyfar.
In Irish and Welsh stories of Celtic Britain, it was women who taught the great heroes both wisdom and the military arts.
Women also enjoyed an important place in religious life. Strabo, writing in the first century BC, reports that a community of holy women occupied an island off the mouth of the Loire, from which men were excluded.
Not only women, but the number nine figures strongly in Celtic religion. The idea of nine priestly women or maidens occupying secret places, from where they hold on to an age-old mystical tradition, is also reflected in classical writings. For example, the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela, writing in the first century AD, speaks of nine priestesses called the Gallizenae, who possessed magical powers, and under a vow of perpetual virginity occupied an island at the western tip of Brittany.
The Green Stone Page 24