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EARTHQUEST
NEWS
NEWSLETTER OF ANDREW COLLINS AND QUESTCON05
Vol. 8 No. 1, Spring 2005
Welcome to another year in the world of mysteries, whether ancient or more modern. I write this as I listen in the background to the funeral of Pope John Paul II on television, making me realise once again the importance not only of great figures such as he was, but also the continuing significance to the world of high ritual in religion. The bizarre ceremonies that surround the burial of one pope and the election of another are quite extraordinary, and are highlighted in THE DA VINCI CODE author Dan Brown's book ANGELS AND DEMONS, now set to be another super-seller for him. Already this year we have seen the impact of the Asian tsunami, which struck one day after Christmas 2004, and a follow-up earthquake of great magnitude which occurred one day after Easter Day. All of this has led the conspiracists to speculate that all of this is God's wrath and another disaster will follow the next major Christian calendar event. Strange days we live in, but now on to more refreshing matters, beginning with the upcoming Green Stone Tour 05.
QUESTCON05
Details have just been announced for QuestCon05, which is to take place
on Saturday, 5th November at Cecil Sharpe House, Regents Park Road,
London NW1 (click here
for full speaker profiles and presentations). As you can see below,
it has to be one of the most impressive line-ups in its nineteen year
history. Taking centre stage at the Questing Conference will be anthropologist
Jeremy Narby, author of the quite extraordinary, ground-breaking book
THE COSMIC SERPENT (1995). In this he describes the remarkable wisdom
of the native tribes of the Upper Amazon, which includes a vast pharmaceutical
knowledge of over 50,000 plants. Asked where this knowledge had come
from, they said the spirits of the plants themselves gave this information
to the shamans. Confused, and not believing what he had heard, Narby
lived with these native peoples for some while, and eventually consented
to take part in a shamanic initiation in which he ingested the hallucinogenic
brew ayahuasca, which was said to aid communication with the spirit
world. As a miasma of psychedelic imagery overtook him, he saw before
him twin serpents, which appeared to unconsciously convey information
concerning their greater significance.
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Jeremy Narby |
The experience confounded Narby, and led to years of study in the nature of human consciousness. Finally, he was forced to conclude that the twin serpents seen by him, and present in primitive and religious art worldwide, signified the consciousness of DNA. Furthermore, he felt sure that they represented the subtle communication taking place during shamanic states between our DNA and that of the plant world. If this were possible, then it made sense of the various tribes' immense pharmaceutical knowledge accumulated across countless generations. Since the publication of THE COSMIC SERPENT, which has revolutionised the way we perceive human consciousness, Narby has travelled the world speaking to shamans and scientists, further refining his thesis, and he will exclusively reveal his findings at QuestCon05, his only public appearance in the UK this year. Watch out also for Narby's new book INTELLIGENCE IN NATURE (Tarcher/Penguin, 2005), which furthers the theories voiced in THE COSMIC SERPENT. |
Joining Jeremy Narby
will be Stan Gooch,
one of the world's foremost authorities on the obscure origins, technological
advances and spiritual mindset of Neanderthal man. For some thirty years,
he has attempted to demonstrate that Neanderthal were much smarter and
more enlightened than anyone has ever given them credit, and more than
this - they did not die out. Gooch believes they integrated with their
neighbour Cro-Magnon man, to create us, homo sapien sapiens, something
which has caused somewhat of an identity crisis right through to the
present day. Everything from political views, through to sexual attraction,
palmistry and attitudes towards women can all be explained in terms
of the clash of consciousness between the two different types of human
being come together as one.
Stan Gooch will be introduced by his long time friend and colleague Colin Wilson, who will also be presenting his own talk on the greater antiquity of human civilisation. Back in 2002, Colin's book THE ATLANTIS BLUEPRINT explored this topic, but so much has occurred since then that he has written a sequel entitled ATLANTIS AND THE OLD ONES (Inner Traditions/Bear and Company, 2005), and he intends revealing all at QuestCon05.
THE CANOPUS REVELATION
Also on the bill is Belgian investigative journalist Philip
Coppens, author of an important new book entitled THE
CANOPUS REVELATION (Adventures Unlimited Press/Frontier Publishing,
2004). For over a decade the world of ancient mysteries has come to
accept that the constellation of Orion, the hunter, played a powerful
role in the development of Egypt's sky religion. Known as Sahu from
the Pyramid Age onwards, it is supposed to have determined the basic
layout of the Giza monuments, and personified the god Osiris, Lord of
death and resurrection in the underworld, just as Sirus, the brightest
star in the night sky, reflected the light of his sister-wife Isis.
Orion's role in ancient Egypt has inspired a generation of writers and
researchers to investigate mythologies worldwide looking for and finding
Orion correlations with respect to ceremonial landscapes and archaic
starlore, elevating this asterism to that of the highest importance
among our earliest ancestors (for instance, see below concerning Thornborough
triple henge in North Yorkshire).
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Yet
today there is clear evidence that the modern interpretation of
Egyptian cosmology hinges on false assumptions. What if a total
reassessment of the evidence presented in ancient Egyptian accounts
leads us to conclude that Orion is not the image of Osiris, but
that of the falcon-headed god Horus? Belgian writer and mythologist
Philip Coppens' decade of research into this fascinating subject
has led him to identity Osiris not with Sahu-Orion, but with Canopus,
the Southern Polar star of the ancient Egyptians, the premise
of THE CANOPUS REVELATION. To them it was quite literally a 'stargate
of the Gods', and esoteric lore from various ancient and more
modern sources demonstrates that Canopus, as the second brightest
star in the night sky, has been important in many esoteric traditions,
from the mystery schools of the Graeco-Egyptian world to the shadowy
realms of the Priory of Sion. Philip Coppens' presentation will
make you rethink everything you thought you knew about Orion,
Sirius, and the ancient minds behind the construction of the Great
Pyramid. Not to be missed.
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MERLIN, AVALON
AND THE NEW WORLD
Our old friend Graham Phillips
will also return to QuestCon this year to deliver a presentation on
his new and dynamic research concerning the life and final fate of Merlin
the magician. He has uncovered persuasive evidence that Merlin was a
British warrior and learned advisor to kings who lived and breathed
during the last turbulent days of the Western Roman Empire. More incredibly,
Graham has unearthed evidence to show that the original Avalon, where
Merlin was said to have ended his days, was based on stories of another
island, much further away. A 1,500-year-old saga called 'The Voyage
of Merlin' tells how Merlin finally left Britain on a boat bound for
a mysterious island, far across the Atlantic. Here he found a magical
spring, guarded by two giant serpents, the waters of which were able
to cure all ills and grant eternal youth. This story, long thought by
historians to be fictitious, was, Graham believes, based on accounts
of a real journey to the New World. Off the coast of Maine in New England,
Graham has found an island that matches the descriptions given of the
Isle of Avalon. Native American legends talk of a sacred spring that
holds curative and life-preserving properties lying in a valley flanked
by two rocky headlands known as the twin serpents. The full story, along
with new evidence of Native American graves in Europe, and European
graves in North America, will be given by Graham, in this his umpteenth
presentation for QuestCon. His book on the subject, MERLIN, AVALON AND
THE NEW WORLD (Inner Traditions/Bear and Co, 2005), will be available
on the day.
THE SERPENT GRAIL
Next up at QuestCon05 will be two new faces. It is always a pleasure
when young and enthusiastic researchers come up with revolutionary new
theories, which change the way we think about life not only in the past,
but in the present day as well. Philip
Gardiner, author of the best-selling book
THE SHINING ONES (2002), and mysteries writer Gary
Osborn, have researched the extent and influence of the snake cult
worldwide, both in ancient and more modern times. This revealed that
the central rite of the cult involved snake venom being mixed with snake
blood in a ceremonial vessel, which in European tradition came to be
known as a 'grail'. Moreover, it can be shown that this powerful concoction
was alluded to in ancient texts as the Elixir of Life, said to have
contained healing properties that prolonged life.
Modern science is
now investigating snake venom as a means of treating life-threatening
diseases, and to prolong life. Indeed, it has been medically proven
to enhance t-cell replication. Yet Gardiner and Osborn offer compelling
evidence that ancient shamans masked any knowledge they held concerning
snake venom as the elixir in myth and symbolism. Beyond this emerged
an evocative tradition surrounding the shaman's embodiment of the snake,
for absorbing the snake venom and blood mixture caused those initiated
into the great mystery not only to achieve enlightenment but also to
glisten in a manner which led to them being remembered as the Shining
Ones.
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Gardiner and
Osborn show that the cult of the serpent was a worldwide phenomenon
behind the genesis of world religions - including Christianity.
They show also that Christ was a literary figure that sprang out
of the concept of the perceived bloodline of the serpent cult.
More traces of this universal current are expressed in the Naga
snake cults of India and the Dragon descent of the Emperors of
China, not to mention the serpent lineages among the royalty in
South America and Europe. The incredible findings of Gardiner and Osborn, which feature in their new book THE SERPENT GRAIL (Watkins, 2005), have dramatic repercussions for our understanding not only of shamanic experience and human consciousness, but also for the story of the Watchers and Nephilim as presented in the Book of Enoch. We advise no one to miss this fascinating and highly original presentation. |
TEMPLES OF EDEN
Then we come to my presentation for the day. My book FROM THE ASHES
OF ANGELS (1996) revealed that the prime movers behind the Neolithic
revolution in Western Asia were almost certainly those who are described
as Watchers and Nephilim in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. These living
beings, referred to as serpents and birdmen, are said to have revealed
to human kind the arts and sciences of heaven, and to have taken mortal
wives, who bore giant offspring known as Nephilim.
Only after the publication
of FROM THE ASHES OF ANGELS did I come to hear about the discovery during
the past two decades in southeast Turkey, which I identified as the
land of Eden, of extensive megalithic structures and rectilinear sub-surface
cult buildings. Some of them date back to 9000 BC, when the human race
was still recovering from an ice age that had covered large areas of
the Northern Hemisphere with ice fields a mile deep for up to 40,000
years. What is more, these remarkable structures - which constitute
the oldest stone temples anywhere in the world - were found to display
a level of beauty and sophistication unequalled anywhere in the ancient
world for thousands of years afterwards. Exquisite sculptures and carvings
of birds, serpents and human heads, square-plan cult buildings, with
terrazzo floors and astronomical alignments, and finely shaped standing
stones - the precursors of megalithic structures worldwide - all suggested
the presence locally of an advanced culture - moreover, one which had
learned its technical skills thousands of years beforehand. Yet who
exactly were they, and where had they learnt their trades?
In May 2004, I was finally allowed to inspect the megalithic temples of southeast Turkey, which are situated close to the ancient cities of Edessa and Harran - the latter being the home to the Sabian star-worshippers, whose living descendants, the angel-worshipping Yezidi tribes still inhabit the region today (click here for a full report). Exactly what I discovered on this fascinating tour, and where it took me next, will be revealed for the first time. Yet over and above all this has come unparalleled evidence that those who founded the Neolithic revolution were more technologically advanced than anyone has previously understood.
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Tepe One, near Sanliurfa, in Southeast Turkey, c. 9000 BC |
As you read these words, I will have begun writing the book which is to become the direct sequel to FROM THE ASHES OF ANGELS. For the moment it is a top secret project. All I can say is that when it is published next year people's views on the foundations of human belief in cosmic origins, and the nature of life and death, will alter dramatically. In addition to revealing the true mindset of those responsible for the spread of civilisation in the Near East, i.e. the so-called Watchers of my earlier books, it is set to contain revelations concerning the ground-sky relationship at Giza which is going to shatter existing views on the subject. Watch this space! |
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BOOK OF THE SOUL Also joining the bill for QuestCon05 is Ian Lawton, author of GIZA:THE TRUTH (co-authored with Chris Ogilvie-Herald) and GENESIS UNVEILED. He has more recently turned his attention to researching the subject of life after death, or more specifically the 'interlife', the period experienced by the human soul between one life and the next. A number of pioneering hypnotherapists have conducted research into this subject, but their findings have never before been properly collated and compared, and then analysed alongside comparable research into near-death experiences (NDEs). These provide a remarkably consistent view of what occurs after death - encountering the white light, meeting spiritual entities, undergoing life evaluation and assessment, and choosing your next life. The results of Ian's extensive research are given in his critically-acclaimed new book THE BOOK OF THE SOUL. |
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Since Palaeolithic times shamanic trances have been induced through the use of powerful hallucinogens. These trigger altered mental states that share a number of similarities with NDEs and interlife regressions. Under the assumption that such experiences have a universal validity, they can tell us much about the nature of shamanism, and in particular the shaman's ability to enter 'non-physical realms' in order to bring back knowledge and wisdom. It is this fascinating subject that Ian will elaborate on in his presentation for QuestCon05.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
QuestCon, or the Questing Conference, is arguably the best revisionist
history event in Britain today. It has survived the post-millennium
slump in the field, and is now growing with strength each year. It is
for this reason that I want to make sure I bring you quality speakers
who have something important to say - something that will help progress
our understanding of the way we think about the past, and the way it
affects the future. So I do hope that you support it, either by attending
on the day, or by letting others know what's happening this year. In
addition to the presentations, there will be book stalls, other attractions
and an opportunity to chat to some of the speakers, and even get them
to sign a book or two. Moreover, on the day after the conference, Sunday,
6th November, my friend and colleague Caroline Wise will escort delegates
around the streets and buildings of central London looking for evidence
of goddess worship, both in the distant past and in more recent times.
Tickets prices remain the same as last year - GBP 30 in advance, and GBP 32 on the day, with 10 percent discount for block orders of four or more tickets. They are available online via our secure server, which has proved a great success, without any hitches whatsoever, or via the credit card hotline at Atlantis Bookshop, Museum Street, London WC1, telephone 020 7405 2120 (+44 20 7405 2120), (GBP 1 booking fee is applicable)
OTHER NEWS
Online I have posted a full review of Channel Four's mammoth documentary
'The
Real Da Vinci Code', narrated by Tony Robinson of 'TimeTeam' and
'Blackadder' fame and screened in February as part of the broadcaster's
Weird Worlds series. I will not go into the specifics here, this I will
leave you to read, but my main question after watching this programme,
which highlighted the claims made by Dan Brown's bestseller THE DA VINCI
CODE, was why bother to spend two hours trashing a book that makes no
bones about being a fictional novel, written using knowledge of alleged
secret societies and real events in history? What motivation did the
producers have to put together a documentary that systematically destroyed
everything from the legend of the Grail to the mysteries of the Knights
Templar, the origins of the Priory of Sion, the secrets of Rossyln Chapel
and the bloodline of Christ? Even though I have to agree with them on
various of their conclusions, I see no point in doing all this unless
the motive is either envy or personal religious bias. By the way, the
documentary featured Graham Phillips and the Marian Chalice, or Hawkstone
Grail, as they referred to it. Read my review
online, and decide for yourself.
FORTEAN TIMES
I might say almost the same things about the scathing review of my book
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GRAIL in FORTEAN TIMES (Issue
No. 194, March 2005). Normally, I do not respond to reviews, because
reviewers have their own opinions, and it is not worth countering such
attacks, since you simply end up in a lengthy two-way debate whereby
nobody gets anywhere. However, what reviewer Kevin McClure wrote not
just about my book, but psychic questing in general, was simply out
of order, and there was no way that I could let him get away with it
without a serious response. What it is that makes people believe that
psychic questing is simply a joke made up for your entertainment? There
is a very real tradition of psychic questing going back to antiquity,
and in the Himalayas up until recent times there was a whole Tibetan
Buddhist school dedicated to the retrieval of artefacts, known as termas
('hidden treasure').
This was especially
so among the practitioners of Dzogchen, the mysterious wisdom teachings
practised by the Nyingma-pa 'Red Hat' monastic communities. The terma
tradition almost certainly originated among the pre-Buddhist Bon-po
practitioners, whose lifestyle was entirely shamanistic in nature. I'd
like to see Kevin McClure attempting to rubbish the treasure finding
of fearful-looking lamas such as Namkhai Norbu, whose book THE CRYSTAL
AND THE WAY OF LIGHT (Snow Lion Publications, 2000) describes him witnessing
such activities in his native Tibet. On the other hand, he should attempt
to dismiss the wealth of evidence for the existence of terma hunting
in HIDDEN TEACHINGS OF TIBET: AN EXPLANATION OF THE TERMA TRADITION
OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM, by Tibetan writer Tulku Thondup Rinpoche (Wisdom
Publications, 1997). As with the debunking of Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI
CODE in the above mentioned documentary, personal motives come to mind.
How can people hate something so venomously that they feel the necessity
to trash it to bits? You can read my review, and decide for yourself.
For your information, hardback copies of TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GRAIL are still available (press here), although if you want one I should go about securing yours pretty soon. It is to be replaced by a trade paperback shortly, and will be followed next year by a mass market paperback.
OBITUARY
I was sad to hear about the sudden death in September 2004 of Andrew
Chumbley, an Essex-based author, magician and sorcerer, who lost
his life following a severe asthma attack on what was to have been his
37th birthday. He attended Earthquest meetings in Leigh-on-Sea during
the late 1980s, and although we never always saw eye to eye, his knowledge
of ancient magical systems, sorcery and books of magic was second to
none, providing an inspiration for budding witches and occultists worldwide.
He wrote his own grimoires (including AZOETIA: A GRIMOIRE OF THE SABBATIC
CRAFT), a rare gift, and, more controversially, claimed to have made
contact with surviving members of an age-old group of Essex cunning
folk, which led him to found his own magical organisation known as the
Cultus Sabbatai. Knowledge of Andrew's death came on the day of the
launch of TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GRAIL, leading me to say a few words
to the assembled audience on the fragility of life. He will be sorely
missed by family, friends and the occult community worldwide.
SAVING THORNBOROUGH
HENGE
Finally, how would you like to help save an important prehistoric monument
in North Yorkshire from oblivion at the hands of our favourite construction
company Tarmac? Over 36 times the size of Stonehenge, this triple henge
complex is unique to the British Isles, and forms part of a wider ceremonial
landscape. The whole area is being wrecked and left flooded and robbed,
and worse still it is being used as a landfill site. A battle is now
underway to try and prevent Tarmac from quarrying right up to the edge
of the Thornborough monuments, and thus ruining the setting completely.
Campaigning groups such as Heritage
Action and TimeWatch are trying to get as many people as possible
to write letters of protest in the hope of influencing any decisions
made with respect to the site's long-term future. George Chaplin, newly
elected chairman of TimeWatch has said: 'When we first started campaigning
to protect Thornborough from destruction there were only a few of us
so we were extremely pleased to find a supportive home within the national
organisation Heritage Action. Our campaign has now grown so large within
Heritage Action that it makes sense to launch it as a completely new
front in the struggle to oppose the plans of Tarmac. We shall now adopt
a wider remit and address all impacts, not just the potential disaster
that is threatening the archaeology'.
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Photo reproduction with thanks to English Heritage. |
For those interested, a writer's objection kit for sending a letter to Environmental Services, Planning and Countryside Unit, County Hall, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, DL7 8AH, is available by clicking here. In addition to this, we suggest going to the help page of the Friends of Thornborough website, where more information on what you can do to make a difference is to be found. Archaeologists have proposed that, as at Giza, the 5000-year old triple henge site reflects a ground-sky correlation with the Orion constellation, which if true would make it the oldest anywhere in the world. The three henges are seen by some, including archaeologists, to mirror the three stars of Orion's belt, suggesting that this is the oldest site in the world displaying an Orion ground-sky relationship. Furthermore, the cursus, it has been suggested, was aligned to the setting of Orion in c. 3500 BC, while the approximately NNW-SSE axis of the double entrances into the henges, have led academics at Newcastle University to propose that this targets the meridian transmit of Orion at the same time Sirus rises in the east. |
REGULAR MEETINGS
NORTHERN EARTH, one of the world's oldest journals of the earth mysteries
and neo-antiquarianism (A year's subscription from just £7.50
- go to northernearth.co.uk), has provided me with a listing of regular
meetings taking place in the UK. So for those who might wish to go along
to an event of this kind, I include it here with their thanks.
ABC Quarry House,
Leeds. Alan spiritsong@synergynet.co.uk 0113 286 9210
Cornish Earth Mysteries
Group (CEMG). Last Thurs of month, 7.30 Acorn Theatre, Penzance.
£2.50. (01209) 831519.
Dorset Earth Mysteries Peter
Knight stoneseeker@waitrose.com,
01258 474658
E Midlands Dowsing Group. 2nd Fri. in month, 7.30. Bramcote Memorial
Hall, Nottingham
Glastonbury Earth Mysteries Group (GEM). 2nd Weds of month. 7.30pm Library
of Avalon. £1.50. Summer trips. ffi - sig@geomancy.org,
01458 835818.
N & S Yorkshire Ancient Egyptian Groups Last Weds/ 3rd Thurs of
month resp.
London Earth Mysteries Circle.
2/4th Tues in month, 7 pm. At Diorama Centre, 34 Osnaburgh St, NW1 £3.50
Megalithic Meets
FFD Tim Prevett, e-mail shropstones@tiscali.co.uk.
These walks are organised free by friends for friends and any interested
folk. Any attending are responsible for themselves, and any juniors
in their care; a disclaimer may be asked to be signed to this effect.
Merseyside Anomalies Research Association Meetings last Fri.of month.
John Hall (0151) 475 7935 j.l.hall@livjm.ac.uk
Norwich E.M. Group Alt. Mons. 7.45 Hog in Armour, St Benedict's St.
jak@cwcom.net
Research Into Lost Knowledge Organisation (RILKO). Talks, 7.15, last
Fri of month, 41 Queens Gate, London SW7. £7
TEMS, Travel & Earth Mysteries Society (Surrey/Mx). Last Sun. of
month. 020 8544 9478; (020)-8979-3148
Treadwells Bookshop 34
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London. 7.15. £5. info@treadwells-london.com.
Wessex Research Group (WRG), Sherborne, Dorset, fortnightly, 7.15 Mons.
(01935) 812353; Totnes, Devon (01803) 868744); Frome, Somerset (01373)
466391
West Yorkshire Archaeology Service (WYAS). All guided walks free. FFI
Dave Weldrake, walk leader; 01924 306809, dweldrake@wyjs.org.uk.
Libra Aries Books, 9 The Broadway, Mill Road, Cambridge. (01223) 412
411. Sunday tea parties - weekly series of free talks, discussions &
workshops. 10.30-6 pm. Talks at c.4pm
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