This is an article that was previously published on my former website, Looking into the Dark Places.

In their 1989 book, ‘The Sun and the Serpent‘, Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst described their epic journey tracing the long May Day dragon lines that weave across the breadth of England, from the tip of Cornwall at Carn Lês Boel to (what I’ve perceived to be) the navel of the Goddess, by the burned-out church of St. Margaret’s at Hopton-on-Sea. Norfolk.(St. Margaret is a dragon-slayer – which I can’t recall the book mentioning, though it might have.)

I spoke to Hamish Miller at a Glastonbury Symposium Crop Circle Conference and asked him how detailed his investigation of the Michael and Mary Line had been in the Oxfordshire area. He told me that they just didn’t have the time for the intricacies (which I understood and expected), they had driven it; so I resolved to trace one particular section close to where I lived at the time myself. This is the initial finding.

 

This is a rough first draft tracing of the St Michael Line from St. Peter’s Church at Marsh Baldon to the church of St Mary at Garsington. 1

The survey was conducted over two days (16th March 2007 and 7th April 2007) using dowsing rods.

Because there are crops in the fields some of the meanderings of the line have not been intricately foot-tracked in some places.

The characteristics (except for the full width in some cases) of the St Michael have not been recorded as yet.
The given widths are approximate (one pace equals one metre). It is intended that this and other (if any) inaccuracies will be attended to in the near future.

CC stands for ‘crop circles’. Notice how they seem to shadow the St Michael, rather than sit on it; apart from one (it seems), at number 11 which was smack on it.

Sorry if this seems a bit of a mish-mash but it is just an initial piece exploring the intricacies and implications of the voyage of St Michael through this small, but enigmatic, part of Albion. There are many wonderings and nothing is concluded. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I did exploring it.

 

1
Church of St Peter at Marsh Baldon
The Michael almost entirely engulfs the church leaving only a very small section of the north east corner. The stream is approx. 21 metres wide where it meets the west end of the church building taking in a high stone wall marking the southern boundary of the churchyard. At the east end of the church the line is approx. 18.25 metres wide. At its southern limit it does not quite reach the wall but stops at a grave stone just in front of it.
A swirling anomaly in the current occurs where the low church yard walls form a corner to the south-east.

 

(This from a previous investigation – but from memory, having misplaced my notes):
Within; the St Michael, inside the church, is a narrow current which enters the main door moves up the aisle to the altar where it turns through 180 degrees back down the chancel to bend around a wall and towards the font, but avoiding it. (This is close to the Annunciation painting.) It passes through a door in the north east and emerges through a window, directly under which is a gravestone dedicated to someone called ‘Mary’.

 

The current now traverses a small paddock for about 150 yards to swallow a small chapel-like brick structure having the remains of a bell tower. Here the current is approx. 20.33 wide.
The stream winds across two paddocks and exits the second between two oak trees. At this point it is approx. 16 metres wide. From here it heads directly to a small artificial lake hidden in some woodland.

 

*** The course of the current from this point to the next (2) is not surveyed due to access problems. Hopefully this will be addressed as soon as possible.

 

2
Crossways
From the south west the St Michael cuts right across a crossroads formed by a footpath and a bridleway. The footpath follows the route of a Roman Road that leads to Dorchester-on-Thames, where there was originally an immense Neolithic site on a scale to rival, and perhaps even better, Stonehenge. The epicentre is now under water after massive gravel extractions. Big Cats have frequently been witnessed here (as they have been in several places associated with St Michael).

At the crossroads the stream is approx. 18 metres wide. The current moves east along the bridle path in accord with a sharp dog leg in the track to flow around a large oak tree and farm buildings (3). Carrying on along the track for about 200 metres (4) it then turns sharply to the north west in the direction of Toot Baldon to cross an expansive crop field.

 

5
Confluence
I picked up the St Michael again on a bridge that crosses directly over where two streams meet. After passing through the stream the current had expanded greatly to approx. 32 metres wide. From here the current flows up the grassy hill (followed by the footpath) to the churchyard gate to Toot Baldon’s St Lawrence church (6). The dragon crosses the newer section of the graveyard south to north but misses the older part. Although it takes in the lychgate the St Michael avoids the church and continues along the narrow roadway to the village.3 The stream has withered to approx. 15 metres at this point.

 

7
The Mole Inn (formerly the Crown public house)

At the junction of the roadway and the main road through Toot Baldon the current curves sharply east to take in the Mole Inn. Formerly the Crown public house (once run by the late and fondly remembered Harry and Vi Jervey); it is now a posh nosh restaurant (apparently amongst the top 10 in England). The pub is haunted – I’ve witnessed spectres here myself (even on occasions that I hadn’t had a drink!).

 

8
Dam
Just past the pub St Michael swerves south east across some neglected ground and then the corner of a crop field to nutmeg a pond and a long drop. This peculiar feature appears to be a dam forming a pond on the north and a deep valley on the south through which cuts the stream. The St Michael rolls across the dam bridge and through a (now) dead tree on t’other bank. Here there is another crop field but the Michael pays it no regard and heads towards another dead tree to the south east before changing its mind to veer over to claim another dead tree in a hedge to its north (9). The current is approx. 10.5 metres wide now.
From here, one feels that Michael has confirmed his quarry and he sets his cap most definitely towards Mary (Garsington church). Mary on the horizon may well have accounted for the sharp change of course part way across the field.

 

10
Lone oak

Lone trees (very often they are oaks) in fields regularly betray the routes of energy streams. It didn’t surprise me when the current headed straight for this one. By the time Michael got there it was now reduced to 9.5 metres wide. It’s next meeting was with an electricity pole (11) just before Baldon Brook and on the site of a simple, yet stunning, crop formation in 2005 (here).

The dragon line crossed Baldon Brook between two large trees; its width 17.5 metres reducing to 12.5 metres on the other side. The stream was chockers with discarded gas bottles and other rubbish.

Weaving across the grassy field it made for a low hedge and at this point measured approx. 11.5 metres in width.

 

12
Vortex
On the other side of the hedge, in the dragon‘s path is a vast almost barren swathe in an otherwise flushed field of oil seed rape. The vortex, at the time, was approx. 33 metres wide.

I’ve yet to investigate this vortex thoroughly but it appears that this is connected to the energetic disharmony inflicted on the Marian Hill (St Mary’s church, Garsington). 2

 

13
Kingsway

The current travels north across the field to a hedge that borders the B480, Oxford to Watlington road, that was once called the Kingsway. More specifically it aims for (or pierces) a hole in the hedge at 16 metres wide (approx.) and emerges at 26 metres (approx.). Passing a road sign on the opposite side of the road the energy stream has now shrunk to 19 metres (approx.). The sign, aptly enough, is one that marks a bend and looks like a writhing serpent.

 

On the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, just by this location (between 12 and 13 on the map, to the east) a design dubbed, ‘the Garsington Dragon’ (possibly by the human agency that made it) was sculpted in the wheat. Part of it, right by the oak trees, looks similar to an acorn, which is a symbol for Mary. Did the maker realise that the circle was virtually on the Michael …and may have been actually on it when it was made? They breath.

Here’s an aerial photo of it taken by Andrew King:

…and here’s an article I wrote about it on my former website. (Waybackmachine)

 

From here the dragon strikes for the church across a crop field emerging very close to a gap in an ancient hedge that envelopes a stream. The line passes over the stream at a point where a fallen log has constructed a waterfall. It then makes for a gateway to the last hedge before the church. Aside this gateway is a huge stone at least 2 metres long and almost 1 metre wide (very similar to the stone mentioned in the article 2). (14) Here the energy line is about 10 metres wide.

 

15
Spring

From the gateway, the dragon roughly follows the footpath winding in and out of the fields both sides of the fence (which is to the west of the path). The line is now 13 metres wide (approx.). Flowing through a spring below a field gate it runs through a crossway (of footpaths) and into the churchyard where the south gate has been constructed in the wall.

 

16
St Mary’s church at Garsington
Under the gaze of the stone dragons adorning the church roof the St Michael heads straight for the porch or vestibule and main door (which we all know by now, I hope, is like church entrances the world over, designed to replicate the vagina) but instead of going through the door it slips along the south wall towards the tower…and stops!

Stops?? How can a vital Earth energy stop? Where did it go? How can it go?

 

Last year, in my article In The Marian Fields, I wrote how I had been told intuitively that the dearth of crop circles at the time had something to do with St Mary’s Church at Garsington. Upon investigation I discovered that to all intents and purposes the church (in particular, the tower) had been encased in a Faraday Cage. This is a device that blocks electromagnetic energy. This particular construct involved sheets of corrugated steel, plastic and scaffolding. (Since reinforced and added to, and consequently the power to the tower blocked for at least 13 months.)
I approached three much more experienced dowsers than I (Hamish Miller and David Cowan, author of  “Ley Lines and Earth Energies“, plus a nuclear scientist who has investigated earth energies etc for decades) who all agreed that this encasing of the tower (an aerial – in part – if you like) would have a powerful subduing or diverting influence upon any electromagnetic energy that met this wall of iron and plastic.4

 

Dearly beloved… Let us play…

The above observations bring to my mind this command from Gandalf in Lord of the Rings:

You cannot pass. I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you here, flame of Udûn. You cannot pass.
~ The Fellowship of the Ring II 5: The Bridge of Khazad-dûm.

The Secret Fire is Venus, who of course is Mary, to whom the church is dedicated. Intriguing!

Anor is the sun, so in this context, the flame of Anor is our hero, the St Michael Line.
With a little translation:

You cannot pass. I am a servant of Venus (StMary), wielder of electromagnetic energy (the energy that travels the Michael Line in this case). The dark fire will not avail you here, flame of Udûn. You cannot pass.

 

So, what is this passage saying, I wonder? Is the prolonged encasement of the church tower for protection – armour or is it imprisonment? Has the church been under seige by the flame of Udûn necessitating English Heritage’s blanketing tactics? Maybe. Or is that what they want us to think? In circumstances like this I always refer to that wonderful piece of biblical advice, Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Being easily able to think of several negative or stultifying consequences like vandalism of the church building, increased costs and the lack and lateness of crop circles and no observable benefits I stand by my original feelings that what is happening to the church is malign in its intent – Unless, of course, more information comes to light that overturns this view.
If Tolkien’s words do apply there may be something of vital importance to discover. (And why shouldn’t they? Tolkien’s awareness of esoteric synchronicity and meaning is obvious and I would suspect that he was well acquainted with Garsington church too. Lady Ottoline Morrell, of Garsington Manor, hosted among the most lavish literary bashes of that era. – I will endeavour to discover whether he did attend or stay at the manor.)

Earlier this year I was told psychically that the power centre marked by St Mary’s, had been temporarily moved – a little to the south of the church. It could be that it is the vortex I found in the field of rape (12).
To be continued…

Ellis Taylor
13th April 2007

 

Footnotes

1. St. Michael Line:
A stream of energy tracked by Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst and recorded in their book, ‘The Sun and the Serpent‘. Accompanied by another energy line (they dubbed ‘The St Mary Line’), it runs east to west across the country from near Hopton in Suffolk to Carn Les Boel near Land End, Cornwall. At Beltane (beginning of May – around the 5th or 6th) and at Lughnasadh (beginning of August – around the 7th) the sun rises and charges the St. Michael and St. Mary where it comes ashore (and leaves) near Hopton.

2. See In The Marian Fields. (On wayback machine still)

3. Interestingly, I found out later, the lychgate is older than the church.

4. Besides St Mary’s church at Garsington, several of the most significant structures on the St Michael line are, or have recently been, suffering the same treatment. They include St Michael’s Mount (Cornwall), St Michael’s tower (Glastonbury), Silbury Hill and stones at Avebury (Wiltshire) and Sinodun Hill in Oxfordshire.

***Crop Circles: The 26th April 2007 seems to be significant, especially for Oxfordshire.
(posted 15th April 2007)
Update: Ellis Taylor 18th October 2007

Two more crop circles appeared close to the Michael line, in this area, in 2007 (on the 29th June and 7th July). The 7th July (Saturn) formation has significant ramifications.
Please read my Blog post, “Shadow Walking” and also my article on 2006’s hexagon formation, “In the Marian Fields part 5”.

 

Further reading:

The St. Michael Line: a Straight Story?

My crop circles page on waybackmachine