Some science behind the scenes
Sacred geography - beacons
Beacons have important symbolism in their own right. Physically they can thus be a symbolic reminder or serve a functional use.
The word beacon is from the old English from which we derive the words ‘to beckon’ or ‘come to me’. The original use for a beacon was thus not a warning or danger signal, but an indicator of position, a sort of place marker, in the dark, of somewhere special.
Later on it was realised that these same beacons could also act as a guide, a light to a path or track – much as torches were lit to light the way along dark roads or alleyways in medieval times – for those perhaps who had left it late to travel. So they guided in the weary traveller. But the hunter gatherer for whom the beacon was originally intended did not spend his life travelling to distant places as his livelihood was based on one well known area.
Beacons were placed on the tops of prominent structures or hills and mountains.
George Borrow – Wild Wales
There stood I on the cairn of the Grey Giant looking around me. I thought on the old times when Mona was the grand seat of Druidical superstition, when adoration was made .. to Wyn ab Nudd, Lord of the Unknown …... I thought on the times when the Beal fire blazed on this height, on the neighbouring promontory, on the copestones of Eryri, and on every high hill throughout Britain, on the eve of the first of May
and
Alfred Watkins – The Old Straight Track
[Sir Norman Lockyer – Stonehenge, Dawn of Astronomy] mentions that in Brittany, fires are still lighted on Midsummer day or Eve on the tumulus at Carnac and at other spots and are called Tan Heol. This is Celtic and in modern Welsh means ‘road of fire’.
It is unnecessary to give details of the widespread practise - even up to recent times – of lighting hill top fires at the quarters and half quarters of the year, chiefly on the eve of Midsummer day and May day, the latter being called Beltane which means Baal Fire
Many of the relevant hill and promontories have been named with the word beacon in England and the word tan which in Welsh means beacon or fire. Thus we have places such as Takpen Beacon, Beacon farm, Punchbowle Beacon, Tanhead, and Tan Hill.
Alfred Watkins – The Old Straight Track
A large number of beacon hills and points are found in any part of the kingdom, most of them lofty hills with unmistakeable names, as Pen-y-Beacon, the Brecon Beacons, Treleck Beacon. Other hilltop names seem also to indicate use as fire beacon points. Such as Firle Beacon, Tan Hill, Solsbury Hill, Bexhill … The case in which I found leys … terminating in hill points with beacon names are innumerable
He gives other sorts of place names which also seem to indicate the presence of early beacons – Fire Stone cross in Dartmoor, Flamborough Head, Flamstead End, Brandis Cross, Brent [meaning burnt], brenton and Brentwood. It is worth mentioning that beacon fires are still lit on Mont St Michel in France which still has sacred significance, and they used to be lit on St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall.
Perhaps the most important aspect of Watkins’s analysis is the association of fire and that important phrase he uses of Tan Heol meaning a fire road. They mark the ends of fire roads – spiritual paths – but have the advantage that they can be seen at night.
Symbolically an enlightened person, physically a place where people go to be enlightened and purified by symbolic fire.
References
Tolkien knew his symbolism -as did the people who made the film Lord of the Rings - here is a wonderful clip where they light the beacons
Observations
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- Brittany - Carnac and its symbolism
- Celtic - Diodorus Sicilus and Pindar - Stonehenge
- County Meath - Tara - Lia Fáil
- Delos - 03 The sacred geographical features
- Eridu
- Father Bernabe Cobo - Inca Religion and Customs - Titicaca Temple of Sun and Moon 1
- Gaudi - Professional work - 11 The Artigas Gardens
- Glastonbury
- Glastonbury Tor
- Hernan Cortes - Aztecs and Mexica - The view from Tlatelolco
- Incas - Macchu Picchu
- Indus valley - Mohenjo-Daro - 02 Layout and plan
- Indus valley - Mohenjo-Daro - 03 The Citadel
- J. R. Mortimer - Forty Years' Researches – Mapping constellations to the landscape – the Howes in Yorkshire
- John Michell - The View over Atlantic – The sacred geography of China
- Kish - The Kish archaeological site
- Larsa - And the Great Hymn to Shamash
- Lethbridge, T C – ESP Beyond Time and Distance – Stone circles were laboratories in which power could be collected and stored until such time as it was needed
- Malta - 02 The Temples
- Malta - 02 The Temples detail
- Malta - 06 Tarxien Temples
- Malta - 08 Mnajdra Temple
- Malta - 10 Ħaġar Qim
- Mesopotamian - Means of achieving spiritual experience 09 Creating a sacred geography
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- Norse - Jelling - The North and South Mound
- Organisation of Pictish society – Roles - Knight - The Whitham Shield
- Persepolis - And its sacred geography 01 The Mountain
- Persepolis - And its sacred geography 02 Surroundings and cosmic egg
- Persepolis - And its sacred geography 05 Stairs and ladders
- Sacred geography - Ancient Egyptian - Abu Simbel
- Sacred geography - Ancient Egyptian - Temples with pronaos
- Sacred geography – Picts
- Sacred geography – Picts – Brochs 01
- Sacred geography – Picts – Brochs 02
- Sacred geography – Picts – Brochs 03
- Sacred geography – Picts – Brochs 04
- Sacred geography – Picts – Citadels 02 – Callanish
- Sacred geography – Picts – Citadels 03 – Orkney and the Brough of Birsay
- Sacred geography – Picts – Mark stones
- Sacred geography – Picts – Round tower 01
- Sacred geography – Picts – Round tower 02
- Sacred geography – Picts – Round tower 03 - Star maps and bliss
- Sacred geography – Picts – Wheelhouses 05 - A’ Cheardach Bheag South Uist
- Schuré - The Great Initiates – 01 Reconstruction of an Initiation ceremony
- Susa
- Susa - The meeting place for mystic systems
- Symbols – Picts – Sacred site - Concentric circles [Complex site]
- Symbols – Picts – Sacred site - Double disc and Z rod [Crannog]
- Symbols – Picts – Sacred site - Mirror [Broch]
- Taq Bostan 01
- Tepe Anginah
- Tepe Ecbatana
- Tepe Kangavar
- Tepe Marlik 01
- Tepe Pasargadae
- Tepe Sialk
- Tepe Tureng
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - Avebury henge
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - Marlborough Mound
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - Windmill Hill
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - A Dowsing survey by Norman Fahy
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - The Cairn
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - The Henge
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - The Ritual Pit
- The Ancestors - Neolithic Orkney - Maes Howe
- The Ancestors - Neolithic Orkney - The Ring of Brodgar
- The Ancestors - Neolithic Orkney - The Standing Stones of Stenness
- The Ancestors - Somerset - Cadbury Castle
- The Ancestors – Stonehenge – 01 Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
- The Ancestors – Stonehenge – 02 Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
- The Ancestors – Stonehenge – 03 Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
- The Sacred geography of the Amazon basin
- Ur
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Celtic Sacred sites and their conversion to Christian sites
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - The Pyramids as the site of the Mysteries
- Watkins, Alfred – The revelation that helped the discovery of the UK’s sacred geography
- Ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu
- Zoroastrian - Means of achieving spiritual experience - 12 Creating a sacred geography