“All this excitement about a collection of battered old rocks and mounds of earth must seem puzzling to those who have yet had no direct experience of megalithomania”. John Michell

What were the ancients up to? is a question many of us ask when faced with the huge stones of antiquity. Many of the stone circles such as Stonehenge and Avebury were built at the same time as the Great Pyramid in Egypt and seemed to have sprung up out of an advanced yet unknown distant culture. Our ancestors were constructing large stone circles, digging deep henges and literally reshaping the sacred landscape of Britain and northern Europe. But why?

We now know from archaeologists and astronomers that many of our neolithic sites are aligned to the stars and record lunar and solar cycles with a startling degree of accuracy. The advanced surveying and complex mathematics that have been unlocked from sites ranging from 5000 to 3000 years old have given us tantalising clues into the minds of our megalithic ancestors. Alongside the modern renaissance of the study of earth energies and ley lines, a public forum has been created to help unlock the secrets of the ancients.

MEGALITHOMANIA is a new annual conference held in the colourful town of Glastonbury, and is now in it's second year. The 2006 event saw speakers such as Graham Hancock, Andrew Collins, Robin Heath and Nicholas Mann grace the Assembly Rooms stage, but it was John Michell who opened up the megalithic can-of-worms in the 1970's with his beautifully crafted book of the same name. His study of the history and meaning of the megaliths, combined with revealing the effects of the stones on antiquarians, archaeologists and skeptics alike, set the framework for the 'Earth Mysteries' movement. John Michell has been the inspiration for all the speakers that graced the rest of the 2006 conference, whether through his discovery of the St. Michael line, or his revelations about the astronomical distribution of stones in Cornwall.

The arena of 'Earth Mysteries' research stretches to the fringes of acceptability, so Megalithomania is intent on creating a public forum to stretch the debate and challenge the archaeologists and historians that dismiss the megalithic ancestors. The passion for understanding the ancients goes way beyond the traditional theories of pre-history. To suggest the neolithic people were savages with no hint of intelligence is an unacceptable assumption. Megalithomania can challenge the historical status quo to open a debate about the megalithic sciences with a proposal to re-write the errors prevailing in the current historical dogma.

The 2006 event saw a range of researchers discuss their theories of the stones. Andy Burnham showed many beautiful images of obscure stone circles from around the world, due to his 'Megalithic Portal' website (www.megalithic.co.uk) and the numerous 'Megaraks' that contribute photos and insights from their global journeys. As John Michell said of the diminishing Cornish megaliths, a use for modern archeology students would be to take up the job of mapping the stones before they are all gone. For unless these markers are surveyed and recorded on the county maps, they are vulnerable to demolition along with the boundary walls that often incorporate them. This was also evident in Nicholas Mann's research around the landscape of Glastonbury. He showed with utter conviction that Windmill Hill and the Tor create a perfect winter solstice sunrise alignment, suggesting the larger landscape was also under the spell of the megalithic peoples. On the film it was seen how the sun appears to roll up the edge of the Tor and even sit on St. Michaels church at the peak of the hill. Many stones that have been found on ancient maps, especially around Windmill Hill, suggest the megalithic significance of the area.

Andy Worthington, who discussed 'The Pagan Reinvention of Stonehenge', set the stage in a post-modern context, describing the current effects of 'Megalithomania' on those who have become so obsessed with these particular stones as to create modern religions around them. Druids, neo-pagans, witches and hippies have graced Stonehenge for the last 50 years, with a persistent enthusiasm and a passion that does not look like waning..

The minds of the megalithic builders were probed by Robin Heath, John Neal and John Martineau, as the subjects of advanced mathematics, geometry and ancient measure came forth. Heath, who has unlocked the deeper mysteries of Stonehenge, gave a beautiful biography of the father of archaeo-astronomy, Alexander Thom, a brilliant academic who held the chair of Engineering Science in the University of Oxford from 1945 until 1961. Thom also discovered the bane of many archaeologists, the megalithic yard; proof that the ancients were not guessing the size of stone circles, but accurately measuring and aligning sites and creating geometry. John Neal, who was giving his first public presentation, has refined the story of ancient metrology and has become probably the number one authority on ancient measure in the world. Frustrated by the lack of coherence from traditional archaeologists and researchers, he has come up with a comprehensive view on the different measurements from across the planet stretching back to neolithic times.

When in Glastonbury, ley lines and earth energies often arise in speculative conversation, so Paul Weston gave us his 'magikal' view of the journey he took across the most famous ley of all, the St. Michael line. Hugh Newman opened this up further suggesting that the intricate energies of the corresponding Michael & Mary lines that weave around the conferences venue, are part of a global network of great earth circles and even geometrical grids that correspond to the Platonic solids. These classical Polyhedra seem to go back much further than Plato, due to the discoveries of the beautifully geometrically carved 'stone balls' dug up around northern England and Scotland that pre-date Plato by at least two thousand years. The first person to question the idea that these stone balls were not 'hunting projectiles', but rather a tool for understanding spherical geometry was Keith Critchlow, the keynote speaker at the 2007 conference.

Coinciding with the re-launch of the classic 'Time Stands Still', Critchlow will be updating his research into the geometry of what he calls the megalithic artists. Robert Temple will be giving us a glimpse through ancient crystal lenses and discussing their use in ancient times, suggesting they could have been part of the megalithic surveyors and astronomers tool kit. Paul Broadhurst will be focusing on St. George and the mythological relation to earth energies and the 'dragon power'. Ronald Hutton will be tracing the stones through an historical time-line and the original megalithomaniac, John Michell will be looking at the artists, antiquarians and archaeologists that gave rise to the name of the conference, forty years after the original earth mysteries renaissance. Just what were those ancients up to?


The conference takes place at the Assembly Rooms in Glastonbury on 19th & 20th May 2007. Field trips around Glastonbury will take place on the Friday, Whilst Stonehenge will be visited on the Monday morning. Tickets are £68 for the first 50 sold, then £80. Field trips are not included in the price.
Call 01458 830281 for tickets and more details or visit www.megalithomania.co.uk.