Shamanism and the Mystery Lines: Ley Lines, Spirit Paths, Shape-Shifting & Out-Of-Body Travelley Lines, Spirit Paths, Shape-Shifting & Out-Of-Body Tra

by Paul Devereux

Book Overview

Travel across archaic landscapes, into contact with spiritual traditions as old as the human central nervous system and into the deepest recesses of the psyche. Explore the mystery surrounding ley lines -- and be prepared for a surprise as you join the author on this extraordinary true-life detective story. Llewellyn holds North American rights only.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087542189X
• ISBN13: 9780875421896
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Another Look at the Modern Myth of the Ley Line

This review is based on the copy of the book I own, first published in 1993. Ley lines are generally considered to be lines of energy in the earth by those interested in earth mysteries or geomancy (this latter term actually being a misnomer that has become entrenched in popular use). In "Shamanism and the Mystery Lines: Ley Lines, Spirit Paths, Shape-Shifting & Out-of-body Travel," Paul Devereux takes a hard look at this idea, and finds that there are major problems with this idea. Devereux has paid his dues in this field, having been involved in the "earth mysteries" field for several decades and having written many books and articles on the subject; he is no neophyte. He is not a skeptic by any means, in the Randi/CSICOP mold, but he tries to be intellectually honest about the evidence or lack thereof in these fringe subjects. Devereux has examined the idea that ley lines reflect lines of mysterious "earth energies" stretching across the landscape, and believes that the evidence does not support that idea. "Part One: The History" covers "The Rise of a Heresy" (how the idea of ley lines were transformed in popular western thought, from a simple alignment of archaeological sites and geographic features into an elaborate grid or web of "energies" that have no empirical basis), "Other Lines of Enquiry" (various types of European sites -cursuses, reaves, stone rows- with geographic focus), and "The Amerindian Legacy" (the various kinds of "earth lines" found across the Americas, from California and the Southwest (Anasazi and Chaco etc.), to South America (the Kogi of Colombia and the Nazca lines of Peru, and Bolivia and Chile). "Part Two: The Mystery" covers how these lines were conceived WITHIN THE CULTURES THAT ACTUALLY MADE THEM, rather than the western interpretations that came up with the idea of earth energies. Part Two's chapters include "The King and the Land," which looks at the identification of the king with the land (as in Arthurian tales, the king IS the land), shamans, Indo-European clues, king and country, and the king's power; "Spirit Lines" which shows that it is alignment of sites that matters, not some so-called energy lines, and how this idea interacts with Celtic fairy paths and the Chinese feng shui; and "Trance, Dance and Magic Plants" which focuses on how these alignments of sites relate to techniques of ecstasy in shamanic flight or OBEs (Out of the Body Experiences), the significant of location, mystery lights or earth lights, plants with hallucinogenic properties that were used to stimulate shamanic flight/OBEs, the evidence from rock art (pictographs and petroglyphs), and symbolism of form and meaning. The last chapter in Part Two is called "The Lines of the Lone Wild Gander" really is where Devereux lays out his ideas of how archaeological alignments of various types and from different regions of the world are all reflective, physical marks made by the cultures that recognize and ritualize the shamanic flight and