undercurrents 17 august-september 1976

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_______________________________________________________________UNDERCURRENTS International Standard Serial Number 0306 2392 Undercurrents is published every two months by Undercurrents Limited (Registered Office. 275 Finchley,. Road. London Nw3), a democratic, non·profit company,. without share capital and limited by Guarantee. Printed in England by Prestagate Ltd ReadingOUR ADDRESS: From now on. Undercurrents will have two addresses one in the city, one in the country. Our new city address:Undercurrents., Earth Exchange Building.. 213 Archway,. Road, London N6 5BN. Telephone (01) 340 1898. Letters about News, Reviews or Advertising should from now on be sent to this office. Letters about Features and general editorial matters should be sent to: Undercurrents, 11 Shadwell, Uley, Dursley, Gloucesteshire GL11 5BW. Telephone (0453 86) 636. Subscription orders and enquiries should be addressed to our Uley office. SUBSCRIPTIONS cost ,£2.50 Sterling (US$6.50 or equivalent in other currencies) for six issues, posted by second class surface mail to any country except the United States, Canada and Mexico. Subscriptions to these countries cost USI' .&0: copies are sent by Air freight to New York and posted from there by second class mall. Delivery takes 3 to 14 days. Since Airfreight is only economic when as many subscribers as possible use it. we cannot accept surface mail subscriptions to these countries. Our US mailing agents are:Air & Sea Freight Inc 527 Madison Avenue Suite 1217, New York 10022. SECOND CLASS POSTAGE PAID AT NEW YORK. NY. COPYRIGHT. The copyright @ of all articles in Undercurrents', belongs to Undercurrents Limited, unless otherwise stated, and they must not be reproduced without our permission. We will normally allow our material to be used for non profit purposes. on condition that Undercurrents is credited.CONTRIBUTIONS. We welcome unsolicited articles, news items, illustrations, photographs etc. from our readers. Though every care is taker with such material. we cannot be responsible (or its loss or damage. and we cannot undertake to return it unless it is accompanied by an appropriate stamped· envelope addressed to the sender. To make life easier for our typesetters. manuscripts for publication must be typed clearly on one side of the page only, with double or triple spacing and at least one inch margin on each side o( the type. OK? CREDITS. Undercurrents is produced by a large number of people. There are only,. two. part time employees. The rest of us work for nothing in our spare time. Undercurrents 17 was produced by: Barbara Kern , Chris Hutton·Squire , Dave Elliott, Dave Smith, Duncan Campbell, Godfrey Boyle·, Martin Ince, Martyn Partridge, Pat Coyne, Peter Cockerton, , Peter Glass, Peter Sommer, Richard Elen, and Tony Durham. And of course everyone we've forgotten. Cover: Richard Elen


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• UNDERCURRENTS, the magazine of radical science and alternative technology [ISSN 0306 2392], was published from London, England, from 1973 to 1984 [No. 60]. This text version has been created in January 2009 by me, Chris [Hutton·]Squire [a member of the now·dissolved Undercurrents Collective], by OCRing scanned images of a print copy; the text has been re-paragraphed and partially corrected but it has NOT been completely checked against the original.

Health & Safety Warning: The practical, technical and scientific information herein [though believed to be accurate at the time of publication] may now be out of date. CAVEAT LECTOR!

The many stories that Undercurrents told will interest students of a period that is both too distant and too recent to be adequately documented on the Web. The moral, philosophical, social, economic and political opinions herein remain, in my opinion, pertinent to the much more severe problems we now face.

Readers who wish correspond on any matters arising are invited to contact me via: chris[at]cjsquire.plus.com

This pdf version is formatted in 15 pt Optima throughout, so as to be easily readable on screen; it runs to 126 pages [the print versions were 48 · 56 pp.]: readers wishing to print it out to read are recommended to use the text version and to reformat it. The many pictures that embellished the print version are sadly not included here. There no restrictions on the use of this material but please credit individual authors where credit is due: they are mostly still with us.

Page numbers below are for this pdf version. The beginning of each section or article is indicated thus:

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• • • • • • • • • • • • Undercurrents No. 17 August·September 19765 EDDIES. News, Scandal, Gossip, Trivia, Grotesquerie and Misery. But which is which? . ' .. 21 EDITORIAL. Mostly about how this magazine comes to be. 24 PREHISTORIC COSMOLOGY. Paul Devereaux's child's guide to Inner technologies; should lead you painlessly to greater things below. 27 SAVING YOUR OWN SEED. Lawrence D Hills on growing your own vegetables and collecting the seeds; Thompson and Morgan " beware! 38 THE OLD STONES OF LAND'S END REVISITED. Pat Gadsby ·and Chris Hutton Squire on their computer ley hunt. 45 THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE AND CHRISTOPHER WREN'S BEEHIVE. John Fletcher on some of the Undercurrents collective's 17th century predecessors. 54 There are no fairies at the bottom of MY garden says John Seymour.59 DOWSING. A practical introduction to dowsing for the alternative technologist, by Tom Graves.64 LETTERS. The participative particle. 72 THE LEY THAT ALWAYS WAS. A compendium of readers' replies to our last foray into positivist ley·huntlng. 76 PRACTICAL KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY. Richard Elen's how·to guide on the photography of the aura.80 WOMEN AND AT. Ruth Elliott on women in what has till now been a mostly male preserve. 91 TERRESTRIAL ZODIACS. Paul Screeton describes a remarkable and ancient link between Earth and Sky. . 99 REVIEWS. We savage or praise works on health, energy, meteorology, food from windmills, childbirth, dowsing, housing, more windmills, meditation, Findhom, anarchist workers, insulation and French AT.113 WHAT'S ON. Fill up those nasty white spaces in your diary before it's too late. 115 SMALL ADS. Consumer's comer.


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• • • • • • • • • • • • EddiesRadio·One Hijack Sensatio tions. AN AMAZING hijock or BBC Rodio look ploce 0 ... the "hole or Southern EnsJond recently. At 11 pm on AprU 1st Radio llistenen everywhere from Eastbourne to the Scillies wel"e utonished to hear John Peel'. openina rcmukJ drowned in I hall of mac·e·gun !'Ire, followed immed.iltely by • rendering of The Who', classic hit Submtute. Mystery deepened. into intrigue as the famil..iilr coffee·table·rocklIIot gave way to a bizarre anthology of banned teCOJ'dl, fIoteric humOur and aubveniYe comments. For 35 minutes the good.tolk of the South Coast heard • demonltratioD or uninhibited free n4io ••• in stereo. A spool' public: service _cut from the Melri<otion Board warned the rearful populace that ilthey peraisted in ..... QId.fuhioDOd units they might rmd their houoes UmylUriowly derno1ilhed by buDdo·. durins the ,,;pt_·Thot .... rollowed by 0 banned 10c< lnc:k advocatiDa desre" of inlimoey undIeamt of in IIroadcutIng HOlUO ••• and 0 diatribe by uthe DOW cIuIirmon of the BBC"";oneldi AmiD. . While aU this was going on Beeb engineers were wreltling manfully with the ether trying to put John Peel back OD his throne. At 11.35 spellbound liJtenets had their hifidelity pirate programme rudely interrupted by AuntY'1 crude attempts to reassert ber mon,opoly. and the voice of the hip establishment lurched unCOltainly back into the world of the living, accompanied by nl'Uch thumping and hissing. . The coup was made pouible by theCact that every night the BBC Rowridge transmitter on the Isle of WIght rebroadcasts Radio 1 on VHF directly to Southern &glan<I and, by way or further relays, tbrouchout South West .Ensbnd and the Channellslmds. , Unlike most transmitters. which are fed by 1aDd1ine, RowridllO takes its Radio I slgrlal off rh .. ir from the master transmitter at Wrotham in Kent. so that anyone who can insert a pirate signal in place of the one from Wrotham Will have Rowridge and its . dependants at their mercy. And that'. what happened 10 I.P. A smaI1 30 watt stereo tr .... mitter connected to & cassette ployer had been hidden in a hedgerow not a thousand metres from the loW mast. Activated automatkaUy at llpm by a solidstate bl.nary·counter this small·but·rather·near pirate st,ation came on the air. swamping the Rowridge transmitter with a signal 200 times stronger than the one received from Wrotham. takin,g .over effortlessly from Radio I. It isn't known how Ions BBC engineers took to become 5Wpicious about, the unusually high programme quality but it was over half an hoUl before they·could rectify the situation. EvontuaDy they manoged to il& up an emergency 1aDdlin·by way of Post Office Telephones, 50 that when Radio


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1 was restored it was in mono. distorted. lacking top frequencies and gener.a.Dy _ extuoitina all the grottiness of an ordinaty domestic telephone line. The technical sophisticatiOn of the project brought private ' exprewons of admiration from' BBC ena:tn·.themselv",. The London·Wrotham signal is carried along a f3·bhannel pulsoood .. modubted (PCM) microwave link built to·high spectfica·And as DUe offo.air receivers are very particular about the·sort of signals they Ielay to the publi<; the pirate transmJtter had to be llelldishly .table, drifting Qnly ·. a few hundredths of one (M'cent ·from its allocated frequency throughout the whole ·performance. After the midnight news and weather forecast in the \Vee sma.1l houn of April 2nd drowsy Radios 1 and 21istmers were treated to an unusual announcement. In the sWeetest possible way the presentation lady apolgised to listeners in Southern Eng1a.nd who "may have been listening to the wrong programme" and e"pre: . the Corporation9s satisfaction that they were "DOW back witb..., . 'us", Not a mention of ao.arcby breaking out all over. Unfortunately it is a trick that can never be pull·again •. A couple daY$1ater. as a myatcrious perso slipped quietly ofr the Isle of Wight with a sma1I pllckage un his srm, BBC and PO ensinecn were busy closing the loophole, in.talling high quality bocllin", carry Radio 1 safe and sound to Rowridg·… Solar asbestos·hitch THE SOLAR·MEC airoonditioniDg pbnt exhibited on London', South Bank durlni tho blazin& days of JIlDll m'y not be the boon to the eurironment that it teemed. For one thiDg. it was Dot totalJy IOIar·powered but ran on gas, with a boost from hish·I efficiency solar collectors. Hence . itl presence there at the 13th World Gal Conferq:tcc:. It was developed in Chi<:qo by the eo. Deyelopmcnu Corporation, with finance from 16 gu companies, wbo are pr·=b1y interested in rOtting people to burn more gal, rather than promoting tolar 2 energy for "its own sake. . Undoubtedly the Se/Qr·MEC idea 11 in&enIoUJ. (MEC ,tand. for. Muntus EnYitonmental Control) It UIeI DO Jeplfate'refrigera.nt, but pHICI the intake air first tbrough , 'drying wheel', then throUih a heat·exchange wheel, and then through JIlOis! pad. which cool the dried air by evaPO[3tion. The only erwgy input is the·heat needed to regenerate the moisture·absorbi1'\s coating of the drying wheel This ,. requires a temperature of 290°C. not maintainable 'Witb noDfoc:ussina solar collectors unless ·boosted by another fuel such aJ gas. The porous. alowly·turrUng wheell which dry and 0001 the incoming air are .upplled by the Munterl Corporation of Sweden·and like the well·knoW)) Munters heat.·conterntion whee1s.they are ,made of an asbestos compound. ·Gal devewpmentl say there is no rilk of cancer·caudng asbestQs fibres being releasedl since the wl\'eels do not rlib against anything. But they are aware that asbeSlol gfv<s thalr


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equiplMnt a bad name and lAY they are looking Cor a substitute. Oz Uranium ban to stay JIM ASSENBRUCK, a .upervisor at the Town.Yme railway moon In Queensland. was dismissed on May 19th·In acoordanoe with Australian Railway Union (ARU) poticy on th·minina: and export of uranium he had roCwed to superrise the loldlng Qf .uIphur destined Co< we In lftIIium proceuing at the Muy Kathl<en mine. Local railway uroan niembers took immediate strike action on his behalf, and lue day. bter 100,000 Australian railVlo'3Y·[kers staged a 24·hour stoppage in Ulpport of their Townsville coDeagues. As part of a temporary settlement Jim was reinstated and railway workers a&reed to handle materials bound for the nine until a special meeting of the Australian Council of Tude Unions was held on June 4th. Subsequent meetings of aU unions involved proposed to tneACTU executive that no maniuni' be allowed to leave Australia until the Ranger Uranium . Environmental Enquiry makes itl f"mdings: known. Its iII'St report will be completed in Augustthis year. Despite threats aDd pleu frOm the govemmenu and·compiny involved the UnioDi have remained IU'tn, and on 28tb June th·y refwed to export 45 tonnes of yellowcake, (U.,O.), to the USA. A. Pat Dunne, Federal ARU. President points out, the uniom are·prepared to back up their, beliefs with action. He clearly see: the issue as a moral one, and adds that union members have Iiothiq to gain financially by 'lrikiDII. In tpite of inconvenience cauted by the strike there was a good daJ 0 support tor the unions' stand from commuter&, Labour Party politicians, Oyeneas trade unionistl, environmentalist group. an4 others. There was little co&demnation except from predIclahle lOwe", such u·conservative Queenlland and Federal governments and new. paper editorials. Australia hold. about 28% of world uranium resources outJide socialist countries. Until the out·come of the public enquiry is known the unions wiD ensure that these r,""rYes are not exported and used. Given the prelent uncertainty about global re¥JUICe!, keepin& Australia's' utanium In the ground is . a significant setback for ov·neas nudear power industries. GOOD NEWS from OuiItiania, the J..year old hippy village housed in former naval barracks in downtown Copenhagen. Bailiffs caUed in by the Danish Ministry of Defence refused to take action until the High Court rilles on·a cue brouiJlt by Clulnianil against the Governmen.t. The case, which began in June, is certain to 80 to the Supreme Court, so the community is safe for another couple of years. . In March 1973 the Gove:rnm·t decided to hold an Ideas Competition for suggestions about the long·term future of the site. At a meeting between officials and community leaders held in June the same year, Christianians were promised that they could continue to live in the area during the 'presumed' three years of the competition. But due to·eements between Copenhagen Council and the Government the Ideas Competition never


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took place. [n spite of this the Govcrninent went ahead with pbm to close Christiania down and redevelop the area, and they announced that the village wou1d..be cleared by April 1976. ]n bringing their action Community representatives quote the Minister of CultUre at the June 1973 meeting: .. Christiania can continue until the resuIt of the Ideas Competition is known. An experiment can, if it is succeSsful, also contin·ue beyond this." They argue that if the competition is to be dropped then new talks between Christiania and the Government are required, and that the latter have no tight to take unilateral action. There is opposition to Christiania. however. The right wing parties were. indignant at the bailiffs' decision and demanded specia1legislation to close the free town. Opposition also comes from the Communist Party who see Christiania as "an accumulation of 50Cial unfortunates on the run from society, romantic and nostalgic," and were one of the parliamentary parties call1ilg on the Government 19 uwind it up as soon as poss:ible.» Fortunately for Christiania the revolution hasn't rcached Denmark yet. . .. One of the effects of the threat of eviction has been a remarkable transformation of the area. In early 1975 much of itl«sembled a rubbish dump strewn with occasional dwellings, but th·.DCed to gain public supPort has catalysed a general clean·up and a more enthusiuticdrive to put ideas of self·sufficiency into practice. The viIla8e is now .·haracterised by weU·painted buildinp, a JlWI of small workshops, welHndered vegetable patches 8.lJ.d fewer smashed bottles and broken·down people. The inhI:bitants. temporuUy reprieved, are back making music. doing theatre, orga.nis1n&: conc·t. and Nllicipit.ins in environmental groups and renovation work·parties. . UK in Namibi·grab, II'i NAMIBIA, '" sw Africa .. they .. y in the Da.1y TeleK1"'Ph, the Rossing dnp OR. RTZ hi" 00111 evay Iaot q or output From the mine right into the 80s, moldy Co BriUin. Rosa., clemonltrates better than any other ...... the Lobo .. Party', defeat at the hands or the nuc:1ar power lobby. In 1969 Berm, as Minister of Technology (remember?) signed • deal to buy 10,000t of the Rossing uraruum. whose origin he could scarcely have been ignorant of. Despite a WllSoD directive that this be kept secret the deal wa. leaked Co <he Tele",ph and PrlllQte Eye (withou.t any prosecutions) but.stilI stand&. Labour's 1973 manifesto prombed to kill the contract, a plan which the then Mr Anthony Wed8ewood Benn supported; but he has not found time to sign the necessary papers while Secretary of State" for Energy. Mwt be the hard grind of open government. So the Work at Rossing goes on. baCked in part by the BritiJh guarantee. The re5efYCI there are over l00,Ooot of uranium, 50 there's pOtential for profit even after RTZ have recouped their £MI20 investment. Output will reacb,S,OOOt'this year·There's probably even enough to spare for the


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South Africans, who are very vexed at being last itt the . queue. They may need s011* thing to put in their shiny new French reactors; they may get it in the early 80s. I RTZ have issued one of their . public·spirited Fact Sheets on Rossing (free from them at 6 St Jome,', Sq., London SWIl. It spench some time delClibing the near·utopian conditions of the new township of Arandis, buUt for black employees only. Amon, the many 1uxuries. being provided for them at the dpense of generous RTZ shareholdeis is a Solar hot·water system, doubtless to help wash off the light sweat of an honen day', taU in the twine. We have been unable to dlJcover·whether the BRAD solar·roof deli8n is to be usM. New tactic at Lucas LUCAS AEROSPACE MaIllS;'ment have rejected the 'NOrkers' Alternative Corporate Plan. But aayone who believes that this is just another 'nice idea' defeated . hive. reckoned without the tenacity of Lucas workers, many of whom were incensed by the hatd·aced Managemont attitude. Even tho conJel'Yltin mapzine 17te Engineer wu moved to say that '"the firm may have lCuUlcd potentiolly prof"rtabIe ideao 1S....u u a peaCeful ruture:' Far from givinS up ideas out·. lined in the Plan the workers have adopted a new approach to bring the issue back into the centre of indus.trial politK:s. The TASS section of the A UEW union, covering draughtsmen and systems engineers throughout Lucas Industries, have now raised the 'alter·natives' as part of the current round of wage bargaining. They have asked Lucas Management how much they are·prepared to spend on the design"·d manufacture of socially useful products. Among other things they have demanded a 40% increase in kidllClY machine production. Essentially the unions are argum, for a 'social wage', demanding that money given up by socially respo.nsible wage··restraint is used for socially useful production. If Management apin refUte to discUSI this they will fmd themselves in an even more exposed position. having turned down' a highly reasonable and non·inflationary request from the trade WIlon side. Apart frOom this immediate tactic the Lucas Aerospace work," are convinced that. in any calC, the company wiU be unable and unwilling to avoid redundancies in. the longer term. There are rumows of clOsures in Britain and a £ 1 ° mUlion expansion of Luc;as activities abroad, in Brazil. among other places whCJe facilities. will be expanded by a factor of three. To sOme extent the Corporate Pian hu acted as a stalling device: it hu forewarned the manag·ment that any redundancies would be the signal for a mauive campaisn in support of the Plan. Hence their !OOthing reply that since aerospace would "'continue to gUarantee jobs" there was no need to diversify. Whether they can keep this bargain remains to be_n. So far lucas Management have not .. plied directly Co'lhe 'social wage' part of the TASS claim. However. neW) oftbe imminent qcking of 10 workers from the


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Neuden plant, which JlIoduecol kidney machines, might wen·be taken as an indirect Management response to, the demand for an increase in kidney machine oroduction. It is not likely to . improve retatioDs between the twg. aides . . . • • Pool probeCAMERAS IN Date Street, a busy thoroughfare in central Liverpool. are beiDi used for surveilUmce of pedestrians u weD 35 lor their official function 01 tntric contIol. A report in LilJerpool Free Pren teUs us of the mest of an unnamed man shortly after a bomb·scare at nearby.Chnpside police etation. He wu liked wJlat he had ben doing ill Da1e Street Oft tile day of the selle and. upon askin, how it was known th.t he had been there, was told th.t he had beeR "leenby the cuneru··. This can only meu. that Police acquainted with the appearance of loco! lefties (the man,is III NUPE official at Waltoo HoopitaJ) must hive examined all the ..:. footage of pedestrians in Dale' Street th.t day. Next time you fork out fot your Road Fund • Licence don't complain: free protection from,the forces of u..archy with each Oat. Habitat cash plea' AFTER A Lor of ad""",e publicity People', Habitat got under way on 29th May and lasted for eight day., in spite of , a mid.""Yt'eek hint from council offlcia1! that the festival hod gone on long enough and 'thing, get 'broken', Heavy rain over the HIlt weekend. did nothing to dampen the $pirits of participant·but . there was evident disappointment in some circles that the occasion wam't more like the Ideal Home ExhibitiQn. Had the publicity really given that imprcssion1 The feitival.had no reaJ. local centre·it just went OD and on,' Jtretching from the rehabilitated hou$e in BruneI Road to Hi1aty Peters' uiban farm almost two miles away. At the fe,tiva1 HQ and information centre in . 5t Paul's School there wu a rather mixed photographic exhI"bition covecins everytbin,: from Christia.nii to Kensington. Hot very far away was the main campsite, a veritable shanty·town of improvised dwellings, even a few conventional tents. . The camp·site also afforded a good view of the rave success of the event·Bryn Bird's huge Cretan sail windmill. built on a solid twenty·foot brick tower·",ith the p\D'pose of raising. water nom the dock·buln tQ lubrioate nearby allotments. The windmill was begun,a few day. before the festival an6 grew vilibly clu.riq; it, making for an encouragin,J; light. Talk·ins were held on a variety of AT and related subjecu. 'lbe windmill event was well attended. and iO was the Land for the People meeting. A solar collector was painsraking1y coomucled during·the week and hot water was observed issuing out of it on the final day. But. and here comes the crunch, People's Habitat was run on the slenderest of shoe·string budgets and there are still a few bills left to pay. The organisers are working to raise the couple of hundred pounds left outstanding: small . contributions from


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UndercUlTenll readers would be greatly appreciated. Anyone who feell like chipping in should sen!l theu . contribution tb People:s H.bita·c/o 9 KlnI Sir ... , London WC2. . Crystal Palace Jam SPOILSPORT RADIO jammen ue playina a nishtlf game of cat·lAd moue with Post OffICe engineers in the streeb of South London. With'their tranamiUer1 hidden in the boots of can and the baeb DC "'os tho jammen are lfI&in8 electronic gueriIIa wufare against the Qpta1 Palace 'ham' npeoter IIlltion,lmown Co ita friends .. GB3LO. 'lbe repeater la owned and operalod by the Radio Society of Greal Britain u a lel"'rice to amateurs. enabling them to bood theirsignalJ OYer much _I diJlIncea. II is ..... on the VHF 2 metre baad by 'mobile' tran,willen which would olherwiae be Iimiled Co a nnge or about IS miles. By tuniJ\a i1110 the repeater stalion lheir sipIaJa can reach over most or Southern EnJW Blit the Tammen, many of whom are themselvcs licenced radio hams, regard thit as cheating. They say amateur broadcaste·mould overcome the' problem of range by using their ingenuity instead. of hitching a ride on GB3LO, and for the lasl 3 yean they have persistontly interfered with the repeater', operation. 'There are are about 30 jammers in an. taking turns to cruise around Crystal Palace broadcasting mu!ic. foul language. impenonations of weU..tnown public fIgUres. irreverent comments and even details concerning the private lives of Post OfflCe engineers. For "its part the Post Office is determined to crush this violation of good broadcasting ethics, although it hasn '( had much success so far. The only prosecutiotl to arise ou.t,of the campaign wu that of a jammer actually located and .".,ted, (not very gently) by"Jegltlmate" &mateun doing the Post OffICe'S Job for them. Buth they and the PO were dismayed wben the malfactor wu fmed a paltry £12 by a beaming magistrate who announoed thar the defendent had bee. '"ham·fasted ... The POll orr"", tracken . thought they were ill luck last month when they intercepted a group of people in a van full of radio equipment during a particularly heavy'jam session. After deep interrogation at the local nick;howevcr, the prisoners, managed to convince the Police that they were a squad of vigilantes also hot 0' the heels of the jamme·s •. and were ' somewhat begrudgingly released. The original jamming campaign wu intended to get GB3LO closed down which it actually succeeded in doing for 2 month. in 1975. Recently, though, it has berome a pretext for rituai aggro between the wreckers and the Post Office with jammen driving very·elole to the trarwnitter in blatant . provocation of the waiting detector vans. Sooner or later arrests will be made. and seasoned observerf oonHdently anticipate Imcs. rather luger than £ 12. The hydroelectric Power Station, Downton, Wiltshire, c10sedJn MaTch 1973 ostensibly because it was no longer economical to run. The 1l0Kw


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statio·was ope·ed in 1935 and occupied two buildings that had previously housed a grist and a paper mill, It was run by one man who lived in a flat above the generating room with his family. He was also re5pOnsibie for regulating the Local network of sluices on the River AVon. Since closure it has been up for sale. lt may appear that It is CEGB poticy to close down small.lucaI, power stations. preferring to build largn ones. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was policy" said Trevor Jones, of South Western RepolL He said that although there were !eVeral small power stations still operating in Devon and COlllwall it was inevitable that as their equi·ment grew older and leu efficient they would be closed down. Invest·inrmoney in new large statioru provided a better return than renovating Slftall ones. The power station buildings are still in good condition. despite dampness and incidental vandalism. They·are extensive. with access to the road. a unaI1 amount of land and the prospect of generating onc"s own power, (although the: equipment has been removed). They could provide excellent workshops and accommodation. The Electricity and Water Boards are currently wrangling about who should pay' for the ,upkeep of the sluices upriver. one plan being to make the purchaser foot the bill. The present asking price is £30.000. Downton is 6m south of Salisbury on the A338. The Estate Agents dealing with the Old Power Station, DowntoD.. are Humbert, Rawlenoe, Flinl and Squarey, 48 Castle Street, Salisbury. Tel: Salisbury 22442. New York City overwhelmed by Green Guerillas REVOLtrrION IS ukil1/l place in New York City, spearheaded by a JI'OUP mown u the 'Green: GoeriIlu". They ue a coUection or 1IOlunteer horticultura1ists, llc:hitectJ, planners and botanists, dedicated to the greeniDg of the urban enmonment. They haVe COYft'ecl vacant lot! with flowers and trees. and traMfmmed rubble into radishes. Their metbodl are orten militant but their onty bombl ue balloons OIled with seeds, lOiI and water, which they lob into fenced'1>rr patches of urhan uglineos.·There are thousands of vacant acres in the 5 New York boroughs. most of them unattractive and debriJ·strewn. Unlike Londo·NYC offers f·w of its inhabitants even·a portage·stamp lawn. and grassed OpeD spaces are a rarity. The Green Guerillas began their campaign in 1973 and as a res.ult of their efforts more and more community gardens are now being dug on vacant lots long held empty by speculators, or neglected by city planners. • Private and municipal owners have not always given up their precious footage readily, hence the need for the 'guerilla' part 0", the operation. Many of the new and delightful city garden, are the result of ,long, hard struggle against red·tape. bureaucratic has.sles and commercial interests. Their size varies from the so·called 'vest·pocket' gardens m odd corners to large·scale restorations.


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One vacant and distressing lot on the Bowpy was restored to farmland, together with a special area for children to grow things. In 1974 it won the Molly Punis 'Dress Up Your Neighbourhood' competition. Another grand scheme was the 'greening of Ruppert' in mid·town Manhattan on the site of one of the old great breweries. The brewery itself was demolished a few years ago and now the land supports 80 indivisual plots for community gardeners. This interest in gardening is part of New Yorkers' wider enthusiasm for bringing nature and rural charm into their concrete surroundings. Many are into 'growing their own decor'. and lOme Manhattan apartment windows are like mini·jungles. The 'in' interior detign concept is the living room as landscape. backed up by window·boxes and balconies, rIle escapes and roof areas sprouting aU manntrr of . r;t'cenery, both floral and edible. The plant·shop business. with . nemes1ike 'Mother Earth' and' 'Grass Roots" is booming. Apart from improving the actual appearance of the city the popularity of growing fruit and vegetables reflects the rising cost of shop·bought produee, a5 well u recognition of the nutritional value of fresh, home·crown food. AcCording to a r·nt Gallup Poll SUlvey many more people would like to grow vegetables if only they had the space ...•. Sophistication in Stockholm"This exhibition dmls with the future. with the opportunities open·to ra lor burlding Q society in il vito! billDnce with the surrounding ntJture, and which ocquire& its energy from the inexhawUble resources f11ilde Ql1tlilable to us by the ecological system" "Th·exhibition leeks to demonstrore tMt many ecologically sound aJt·Mrives,·lruuJy exist. k't belie)'e thilt peopk are unaware that they exIst”As these publicity quotes imply the ARARAT exhibition in Stockholm was designed to 'tum on' people drifting in from the street. and apparently it succeeded. It was a mixture of criticism of the high·growth SoCiety, nuclear, wasteful, polluting and alienating, together with displays of AT hardware and some highly abstract ecological symbolism. But the absuactness of the symbolism, based on an earth, air, water and sun motif. meant that it was difficult to relate aU the bits of hardware and environmental information to the implied eco·utopian lifestyle. ' Perhaps the Swedish population is more practical at 'conceptual' . approaches. Even so. some people \IIeJe obviously m)'ltified and wandered around the exhibition. housed in an ultra·modern. fuDy air<qnditioned museum. clutching gujd·books and looking not a little overwhelmed. It seems to have been more successful as an educational tool. used by school parties with guides who could interpret the viiual rhetoric and answer questions. There were some very l'romisi.ng ancillary developments, too: weUequipped workshops where kids. students and AT·freaks could . tinker with actual bits of hardware. and a fascinating D·I·Y bouse, built entirely


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from scrap, replete with IOIar·collectors, _ passive heat store ,and aerobic composter. An elecUic tricycle. driven by a washing·machine motor, powered by windmillcharged batteries. was also on display, and could occasionally be lCen gliding noiselessly around the site. But overall, ARARAT was somewhat static. In the UK we have to some extent lone beyond the 'autonomous hoUle' idea, . much in evidence in photographs and exhibits at Stockholm. and . onto more community·riented experiments. True. the hardwue' displayed at ARARAT wa, very sophisticated, with a large number of (mostly commercial) aerogeneraton and solar panels.. methane genCl8tors, stirling engines, hydraulic rams. But most of these items were sitting around tike statues. unattended u.;! • unrelated to an)' social context,. merely to be 5tared at by the curious. That seems to be the basic contradiction of an uhibition of AT hardware. You can relate it to general ecoIoaica1 ptinciple, Cairly successfully, but it is harder, given a museum site, to relate it to a real social context, and thus enable people to asscn their attitude to it as a personal 'Iif&o style' poSS1bility, . Nevertheless the exhibition. and the ulOciatcd. Jecture series. seems to have had a major impact in SwcdefL 75,000 people visited it; and there are plans for the exhibition to tour Europe. Vienna rust stop. It would be inlerening to Jee the reaction of J. British . audience. Nuclear threat to prIvacy 'AUlliORISED OFFICIALS may enter any premises in the UK where they suspect atomic energy work is proceeding, without giving notice to the occupant and without a magistrate's ....·,mant. They may inspect the·premises or any articles there, and may copy such things as dlawings. or remove tt·m. subject to returning them within seven days .. These .powers, spelled out by Energy Secretary Tony Benn in a written answer to a Parliamentary Question in lune. date from the AtonUc Energy Act 1946. Surprise raids on Ha.rwen or Wwdscale by the UK Atomic Energy Authority Police seem implausible, bUI there are circumstance in which the powers of entry might be invoked against private citizens. Gas and electricity authorities a1SQ have powers of entry. but unless there is an .emergency such as a rue or gas. escape. the . occupier's consent or a magistrate's warrant is needed. The need for inroads into individual freedom and priracy in a nuclear·powered society waS ·. perfectly clear to the State 30 )'"e3rs ago. but only in the past few year&jw this become a serious concein among opponents of nucJear power. ICI worries Mancunians

CONSTRUcnON OF A hlJlO5000 Ion Iiquicl propylene lank' .. creatinB


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concern in Manchester: It is feared that an explolion of • ","pour doud, u happeaed at F1.ixborough tWo ,yean alat (:Quid wreak devutation on a vast scale, just ten miles from tbe centre of Manchester;an.·in dole proximity t ... f"_A '·.·__ I·__ A ul_n_ suburbs. The propylene will be stored in lin 80 feet high refrigerated sudace tank as feedstock for the manufacture of polypropylene. The fcatwe causing particular concern iI not a potsible lou of rerJlUation but leakage of vapour followed by the ignition of a large volume of gas mixed with air. Furtber damage could result from the large amounts of hazardous chemicals already on the site some 20.million pUom of flammable chemicals are dor·and this wUl soon rlae 10 25 mUlion gallon!. The close vicinity to plants used by North West Gas and Air Products Ltd presonts additional danger. According to M.ncherter·s Mole Expresl police have nu.de a survey of emington·e for evacua·tion,. and have 'major incident' tllans fOl stODDin2 Bnd cleari:n2 ·' traffic 5·6 miles away. Workers on the site as well as company and official safety officers are porticularly aPPiet>ensive of vapour leakages·it would appear. similar to a steam cloud, a common occurrenCe on the site. Inlune this year 2500 gallons of crude petrolleaked and spread aero" the Manchester Ship Canal, closinl; it for sixteen hours because of the risk of explosion. It·went undetected until haus&holders some distance a9laY noticed a strong smell of petrol. In 1968 a drizzle of oily rain coated houses and gardem in Sale, six miles away and more. One youth .was killed and another crippled after an explosion in 1969. Carrington V11!age was 'rocked' by an explosion in the ethylene plant the year before there were two major rues·in the ···At a planning inquiry to conrouet a 4(}O..feet chimney for .. fume disposal Shell thIeatoned to close the works unless they got unconditional pct'minion to buDd I •. They obtained planning pel' mission for the new refrigerated tank just before local government reorganisation. leaving new councils far from ha·ppy. Thousand. of pounds are paid to local farmers every year, as com·pensation for ruined potato·erops. Even as long ago is 1968 some fanners were being paid £6000 . a year for Shell to have the privilege of pollution. Although Flixborough W3J popularly reported as lhe firll occurrence of I. new and unprecedented hazard. there ha' in fact been 108 such incidents belween 1930 and 1973. and. are steadily increuing in size frequency. AU of these were , reported by RA SITeblow al the . 14th Symposium on Combusti in 1973 (the F1ixborough . explosion took place in 1974) • Against festival chaosTHE ADAM TRUST regard themselves as a sort of 'Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 15:25 year·olds'. They got together a couple of years ago after'being horrified by police strong.arm tactics against peaceful,


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fun·loving pop festival·goers. '. Anyone who has forgotten measures by Thames Valley Police to wipe 0.pt the Windsor Festival in '74 must have very short memories indeed. The aim of the Trust is to try to cool things down between organisers and the guardians of public order, to ma\:e sure that there are no 'misunderstandings' about rubbish collection, sanitation, public health, medical services, traffic control, food, water, noisc, flIe precautions,' order, site ·rneetings and all the other vital·matters that sometimes get 0 looked. The Trust is slowly buiJdinl a reserve of experience and information which will enable festivals to take place without chaos. At the moment they are aJna3sing details, comment, an, descriptions of recent festival. that they can publish a distillation of the best advice available. Anyone who would to contribute their observatio this project should write to the" Trust, as irideed should anyone '. who would like details. of futur·festivals and the Trust's activit·Please send SAE to Adam TruA··30 St Mary's Road, Ditton Hill, Surbiron, Swrey. Taste of honey REPORTS lUST IN Qf what may be the world's biggest, and nastiest, eco·disaster. According to our·Long Island correspondent the main New York City sewage works exploded in June, probably because of a pressure buildup, and the consequences were far from pretty. Two kid. were bathing neatby, one of whom died horribly in hospital; while the other vanished into the brown ponidge never to be seen again. Bathers along 90 miles of beaches oµ the south side of Long Island were dragged off to hospital for gamma blobulin iiljections against hepatit·and the beaches were promptly closed. They are now IN>pencd but are so revolting that the bath ... are still keeping awaX' This reminded Eddies of the 'honey·run', the boat.trips made from NYC to dump raw sewage. usuaUy in the valley cut by the Hudson in the continental shelf. The part of the conshelf used w. nOt of sumcient capacity to tat all the sewage put into it, and oceanographers report that the stuff is now creeping inexorabb back towarih the shore. It isn't known when it's due to..·slurp OJ the holiday beaches but·dumpb is still going on, so it may be SQi Some of the sewage found ati Long Island appeared to have b in the sea. for some years, acccx ing to the International HmzJdTribune. More disgusting·taII \WI follow. . FROTH:TO PARLIAMENT, to see tb. glorious "people's Select Committee on Science and Technology_ (Energy Resources Sub·Committee) doingwhatevcr it is they do. Just two·days before Bennergy '16 one of the crucial question question, wu whether'the National Energy Conference was going to be a 'fix' or a piece of 'opinion managcment·. The Dept. of Energy. . who were gi·vidence. actually raised the nerve to deny it was either, but


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well come to that in just a. minute. Five DEn men appeared beelfre the SobCommittee, including the Deputy Secretary and the Policy and Conservation UnderSecretary, as well as Walter Marshall, the Chief SCieptist. The former are Marshall's superiors but be sat in'the middle and did most of the talking.·occa&ionally 4eJegatin8 questions to·. them. My doubts about who's to head the . Scionc. Policy Stoff w,/len tbe Cabinet fmally . gets onc grQW smaller·by the day. Marshall showed decided enthusiasm for' energy conservation and admitted to having inJulated. his own·OOu!e. Jt can be no coincidence that from that day unto this the temperature in LOndon hun't fallen below BO°. Heaven sent 48 BLISTERING HOURS Iat .. , Church HoUle. Westminster, exudes. an odour of sleepy am:tity. B.·th the curved wlUt. dome of the ronference chamber, Irucribed in gold with Biblical quatatiaDi and entered throll&h heavy double doon marked 'eng' and 'Laity', the .... mblod worthlo, of the C of g have, to ponphlue W.s; Gilbert. ,pont thelall t·w _·doinll nothinll in portlcuhr and doq it very well Not qult. the place you'd expect our dynamlo Eneqy seCretary to choo .. aa tho ....,1JB for the fIrat National Energy Conf .. OIlce of that thnutins n.w Petroleum Exportlni Cotu11ry, the UnIted KlnIdom. As the 1llOl1llnI'·.poocb .. droned on into the afternoon and th. effects of DEn Wine b"llan to manifest thentselves. the contrut between the eccletiutlCal surroWldingJ and the en ... go!ic prooeed!op became pIeuaotly blurred. In tb. twiokIlni of an eye I .... tramported to the . Vatican wh .... lt seemed all tho Cardinals and Abbots, allth. Bishops and Arcbbishops of the world had boon IUIIUIlOned by .Pope .Benedict I to a.dYise him OD 8 complox doctrinal problem: the En"V' Gop. Th ........ genoral_mOllt that North Sea Oil. while earichin8; UI beyond our widest dreams for S. 2S or eYeD. 50 yeus or aO,would eventually run out and leave III with the dreaded Energy Gap. ThlJ woulll obvloUJly have to be ftlled with IOmet!tlJJg, but on the·question of what that somotlling misht be tbe disagreement was complete. For most of the morning tbe assembled laity . was treated to an elegant mixture of 'peCw pleadin& and bad·stabbing by their eminences Cardinals Hawkins of tho Central Electricity Board, Em of the National Coal Board, Ryder of the British Gu_Corporation, Hill of the Atoiidc Energy Authority and Kearton of tbe British National Oil Corporation. They all argued that their respective industries were in excellent shape, faced a bright future. and were ideally suited to plugging the EneJgY Gap. But they were also, somehow simultaneously, unlikely to survive Utoe decade unless the grossly unfair advantages enjoyed by their competitors ...... wilhllrawn forthwith. Selfollyled ·oderates'. su<::h as Archbishop Watk.i.mon of lb. CBI and Father Frank Chapple of lbe TUC,


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took a neutral stance on this controversy. They weren't fussy how the Energy Gap was filled, 50 long as whatever nned it didn't threaten pronu, jobs, or both.·, _. Scots free?·The nut sign of a challenge to the tacit ass'umptions of the convocation came from Presbyter Gordon W'llson of the Scottish Natio,rW Party I who polb:ely declared ttuit ·North Sea Oil was Sconish oil. over which the new Scottw, Assembly would make it their·business to gain control Worse·.&till they would want to "'associate themselves with the OPEC group of countries" and, to cap jt all, they felt that Scotland could do witho.ut any more nuclear power stations. 'Nilson conceded that Scotland's Oil was a.5 non·renewable as everyone else's and would eventually run dry, though be felt that conservation would postpone the Energy Gap (in Scotland. at loast) untD the 2111 century. But he was quick: to emphasise that the Scots, u·well as hogg·the bulk of the UK's oil ·resources, are in an ideal position to exploit wind and wave power,' and intended to grab the lion's share of the ux.'s renewabie resources, too. That didn't go down too.well with the Suoenacbs. This fIrat fleetinll mention of renewable energy resource, .... echoed by Abbot Artbur Pabner, chairman 9' tbeaforementioned Energy RCIOUIc:eJ Sub·Committee, wl:dch. it seem .. ia plllicuIarly lmpreaed by proPoaJa foi a hull" tidal power staoon In the Severn Estuary, (A site which falla, by a curious colncldeR<:e, witbin tho IIOOd abbot'. patJah.) A note of senUe radicaIlty .... then il\Iocted by Cardinal·Avebwy of tho Conaonatlon Society, AImoIt ·opoJo&etlcaDy he quootioned the need to maxlmloo growth, doubted tho .uppooed . correlation between ec.o·c growth aDd·'onorgy growth, and donielI tho. very oxlatence of the alloged EIleIJ)' GOp alloJet!>er' Thole point. ·were ampliflOd In a Ie .. gentlo taahion by . Pastor Walter htteno·ftatema1 cWepte from tho Socioty of FrieodJ of the Earth,·but for. a1moot everyone .Iso economic irowtlt.and energy growth were exte:ma1·ends beyond. d.iJ.Pute: only the meal\J were subject to negotiation. Radir:ality of a somewhat different hue was pedalled by the Ri,ht R ..... end Enoch Po .... " representing the f'uIl Froo Pro.byteria.n Chmch of Shiulld11 Road, who argued that since only God wu capable of dCYiJing a cohetentenergy policy the politicians should lea.ve IUCh matters to be settled by IIlo oppointed imtrurnento, the subtle and mYSiterious forces of Ute market. Power'Lsert1lon was hotly contested'by Brother Mick McGahey I fiery worker priest from the Scotti.b ooa1flelcb, wbo declared that "Moth ... Natme does not .react to market fortes." " The bOmb8heU of the conference came·from Archbishop Flowers, chairtrWI of the Royal Commission on Environmental Protection, who deliVered what many' interpreted to be a deathblow to·prospects for a British fast breeder


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reactor.·We believe that nobody should rely for something as basic 8J energy on a method that produces a by·product as dangerous as plutonIum," h. declared, adding that !lis com··mission was far from convincod. the British bad', " no a1tema··Duclcar.po·.. _·.·hetlO :.'·, ,mortAl injuries were delivered to the nuclear coloS8us by Cardinal Hawkins who all but admitted (informallY) that the CEGB had given up the idea of ordering any more nuclear reactors,. certainly for the time being. The prospect of aban·ning or indefmitely postponing the SGHWR programme WI$ greeted with horror by interested parties from the nuclear industry. Cardinal Hill of the Atomic Energy Authority and Archbishop Aldington of the National Nuclear Corporation pleaded with Bennedict to spare tbem jwt a f·order. for' nukes. From the union side Brother Alan Hammond of the EETPU expressed disgust that his members' jobs were being jeopardised and challenged Bennedict to deny that jt was "only a matter of time before the SSHWR. was terminated"·a challenge which BeMedict declined. But in stlite of the imminent demise of the nuclear programme the happiness ef the alternative energy source. lobby wal not quite complete. Whatever bad become of the Sun.. we wondered? Had not the highly respectable UK Solar Energy Society just issued a report demonstrating that solar energy could. at a conservative estimate, meet 25% of UK en .. gy demand by 20251 Well, tho Solar Energy Society wasn't even invited to attend, and thoush the Society', roproaentatlv .. (who smuggled himself in as a Royallnstitution d.legate), aalc.ed throo time, to addr ... the meetin3, thrice he was denied. Behind the scenes of open government DEn shows that when it oomes to inscrutable lupprcWon it c:an. tOJOh tho Vatican a thing or two. Dragon teeth ON TIlE PHONE to Leeds I ,;U Charles Wakstein about tho apparent coDapao of the nuclear industry but he', still aceptlca1 and ayo he'II contlli.ue !lis anti·nub campalcn for the timo being. Readers of Undercurrents 16 wtn ... call hlo article about th.1lmltaoon. of nuc:lear eogineen and their failuce to learn from .. perience, and may be Interested to know that he !lao prod""ed and cllrected (aa they say) , 8 2S·minute colour film on tAe same subject: Called 0Iging A Drogon, tho rdmoxplorea the lmpllcatiaDi of an adrnialion by the AEA . Safety Adviser that the chan", of a major reactor accident in the next 25 yean are as high u I in 100. In that unthinkable ev.nt there could reonlt aa many u 100,000 caJeS of cancer of one form or another,.centted on the location of the reactor but spread far and wide. The two . major W'uuIsCaI. accidents, 1957 and again in 1973, leave one in little doubt that lOCh nuusive destruction is wen within the capabilities of the people up there. ‘As a professional engineer I'd known some reaJly dent engineers in the


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nuclear business and Ithooght that witb ponpl. Uk. them around it could be made safe enough." says Wa.kstein··1JUt what J've learnt while making this fDm has completely changed my mind. There have been 50 manyunbe1ievable stupid mistakes and anyone with the conf'idence to wade through·e offICial reports and·d·een the lines can see just that." WAkstein i! prepared to travel around with his ftlm and answer any questions arising from it. He is particularly keen that members of trade unions should see'it because they are "best placed to put pressure on the nuclear establishment to make things safer .... For further detaili write to bim at 2 Blenheim Crescent, Leeds 2. (0532 445579). Or watch out for it. appeatance on BBC.TV's Open Door olot in Delober. . .


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Editorial:THIS IS OUR FIRST issue under the new, open, revolving responsibilities, self·management set·up. For those who don't know it, we run ourselves as a democratiC collective, letting key decisions 'emerge' during the course of our weekly meetings to which you can invite yourself by ringing one of our 'phone numbers. Only rarely and with reluctance do we vote and those of us who. are activists do not demand a finely honed party line. Our commitment is largely to the dissemination of useful information. What's changed is that up till now, much of the work has been done by Godfrey Boyle, our founding editor, and Sally Boyle. Godfrey has now landed himself a lectureship in the technology faculty at the Open University and has now indicated that he wishes to have a somewhat less dominant role in the running of Undercurrents and relieve us of the burden of finding him the modest salary he's been drawing from the past few issues. In future, therefore, key functions·News Editor, Features Editors, Reviews, Pro.duction, Distribution, and so forth will be revolving posts, altered for each magazine according to who is available and who we think likely to be competent. (And anyone·can become part of the deciding group simply by·showing up often enough).·. What we've tried to do is to maintain maximum fluidity and flexibility without losing that small amount of Internal self. . discipline necessary to get the magazine out reasonably regularly. It works like this: key decisions affecting each magazine are taken at major meetings held every two months, immediately after publication day. We carry out a post mortem on the latest issue, review what we are doing for the new issue, and·appoint posts for the issue after that. In effect,therefore, people will know what is expected four months in advance. Thus our last meeting, held at People's Habitat, reviewed issue 16, heard progress reports for the issue you're now reading, and appointed people for issue 18. We hope all this will give variety and continuity. Contributions should be sent to Archway Road addressed to the title rather than the person. please. Money Like everyone else, we're short of bread. But by tightening our belt a bit further we expect to stay alive. Here is a report on our two most recent issues: FINANCIAL REPORT for UNDERCURRENTS 14 and 15

14 15

Revenue:


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Subscriptions 1356 1045

Other magazine revenu.e 539 496

Book service 205 189

Total: 2100 1730

Costs for 14:

Print bill for 8,000 copies 740

Wages 640

Post & packing 330

Typesetter 180

Book service 140

Phone 100

Picture screening . 40

Airfreight . 30

Allowance for unbudgeted items 150

Total: 2390 2010

(Loss): (290) (280)

These losses have been made up by running down our reserves, taking credit from our suppliers and by personal loans from members of the collective. To get back in the black we have cut our overheads:reduced our print order to 7,000, announced an increase in the subscription rate and moved to (we hope) a better distributor to the newsagent trade. We are confident that from now on Underrcurrents will pay its way and make a small surplus which will enable us to pay off our debts. There is a message here, though. The more copies we sell, the bigger and better the magazine. It's just a stray, money orientated thought, but if instead of having say, 10 readers per copy sold we had 5,the magazine would be larger and cheaper. Do you really have to borrow yours? . . . Inner Technologies The features editors for this issue are Richard Elen·and Peter Sommer and we've chosen to do a 'special' on Inner Technology. Not everybody likes or understands inner technology because its methodology doesn't always follow the text·book lines of 'pure' science. These inner technologies are important because they are practically useful and because they may tell us more about 'reality' or indeed if such all absolute exists. Basically we think technology is what works and science is the technique of strong inference. Rather than fly away from ley research, dowsing, the implications of Kirlian photography, the possibilities of pyramid power and the like because normal 'objective' testing is difficult, we prefer to tackle the problems head on. Even when the power of the mind and the role of


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the experimenter play an intrinsic part in what happens, there are still tests of acceptibillty/gullibillty to be made and. we intend to find them.


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Devereaux Towards a comprehension of the prehistoric cosmologySince the disc\)very of ley. in 1921 by Alfred Watkins there hove been dozens of researchers exercising·heir own intuitive·ttem'making and objective investigations within the ley matrix. We all stand in awe, particularly. of·John Michell's outstanding work. Amidst the welter of this creative, and inspirational renaissance, however, it is perhaps time to attempt to glimpse the integrated form, however ghostly, of the ancient understanding. Towar.ds this end I offer the followipg·notes drawn from six yun' involvement with the subject and a number of revelatory events which I have been fortunate enough to experience. . The Ancients made no distinctions, as . we do, between inner and outer reality to them it was all one continuum. They would study the objective urtiverse as part of the 'job of understanding their psychic experience and vic·versa. The prehistoric code we are slowly rediscovering makes it clear that the mechanics of 'Creation were well understood. The patterns by which formless energy manifests itself in our. time/space universe were tabulated. The route from energy to matter was mapped. Within the ancient structures are the proportions, Patterns and ratios that are echoed in growing things, in shells, galaxies, planetary systems, atemic networks and so on. This proportional and geometric information displays the synthesis of inner and outer reality, of macrocos. mic and"microcosmic creation: the patterning of al·nature which includes con5<:iousness as well. Amongst lI\e debris of this former knowledge we have . the various religious ilfyphs: the 'Star of David'; mandalas, swastikas, crosses, yin yang symbol (the central union of two root two spirals?) etc. Each one a precis of a whole system of understanding that "'multaneously. encompassed subjective ,and objective experience and which is now a1m9St forgotten. As we diScover from .the earlier work of Michell, the core of the prehistoric cosmology was the marriage·or fusion of heaven and earth producing a subde and asyet unclassified form of energy. The ancient structures were actual instruments'used in the creation, Jibera·tion or distillation of this nameless force. A variety of research, folklore, nwtn and current spasmodic phenomena point ..........to the. foUowing uses of the su·btle energy: subjective mi.,d·change experien·ces; objective manifestation of psychic" entities; the fertilisation of land and seed, possibly even as a means of levitational transport I suggest the most important of these uses would have be·n the objet·. tive manifestation of psychic entitie … These intelligences were known as 'gods' but we nowadays tend to refer·to thel)1 as 'archetypes'. Virwally every ethnic , group in the world has a myth somewhere that refers to the ancient forefathers being able to 'talk with the


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gods'. It is fashionable today to explain this as being .a meeting between the human species and extra4terrestrials who were passing by thousands of years ago. I suggest that this theory reflects our conditioning by . contemporary 'space·age', meehanical thought.patterns. I think the matter is more revelatory and complex than neigl:Jbourly spacemen. The Ancients, possessing the full knowledge of the linterface' area, between energy and matter (or spirit and form, void and plenum, etc) were able to manifest on a visual aural and possibly tactile level the knowledge·holders of the universe and communicate directly with them. The question whether these manifested entities were of a physical or psychic nature does not arise because it is all one continuum·the paiterns of our minds are the patterns of the"Stats. Thus the inherent wisdom of nature regulated human affairs. ' .. This 'Golden Age' of understanding has faded but there are still remnants of the old energy. Remnants such as modern magical and mediumistic events; scmi·acdve standing stones; elemental occurrences at pagan sites and·above all·the lights in the sky, the images in the heavens, the UFOS. I wish to dweli . on UFOS for a fe", moments because of all the current spasmodic phenomena it is they, I ,feel, that are the most rewarding to study. That they exist, only those who have not seen them and dl' not study the stupendous evidence 'will deny: Some UFOS diSplay the cosmic, impersonal intelligence (lights, .colours and symbols), a few are archetypal forms (figures); other""re every·one's bad dream (malevolent aerial·phenomena) and many·are Our mechanical alter egos reflected back (the 'nuts and bolts spacecraft type). Like so many 'interface phenomena theyexist'neither solely in oUr minds nor entirely in our .. environment, .But there is a li'1k·our ' con5<:io, .. nes .. By 1967, for example, Of an unprecedented number of people. were taking the journey into their souls using psychedelic drugs. In 1967 more UFOS were reported than at any other time in history. Policemen (by the dozen), Midland housewives (by the .score), even BBC reporters and many hundreds of other non·hallucinatory types were sighting figures, lights, crosses and ellipsoids in the sky. In addition, most sightings occurred in areas of great pagan sanctity. Many lufotogists' find this connection irksome and tend to deny or ignore it They return to their semi·scientific ramblings that have produced no hard information about the actUal nature of UFOs in a quarter of a century's work. This pitiful record of relatively unproductive effort makes it futile for these people to deny .that their approach is seriously inadequate. . It is time more inner technologists decided to identify unidentified flying 'objects' for they come within the scope of researchers. The image of the watchers on the hills is of proven mythological validity. This map of Leicestershire shows the cOincidence of paranormal events with megalithic ,ites. Triangles indicate stones, dots are paranormal events,


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ghost or UFO sightings, etc. The areas enclosed by dotted lines are places with a history of unusual geophysical events.·UFOs, elementals; ghosts, demons, gods and amorphous energy packets all these have their. place in the interface area. The Ancients knew the place and function of each entity and controlled the mechanics"of its appearance. Because of their'deep understanding of the actual patterns of existence together' with their ability to produce the energy of fusion. (which seems to have been some sort of catalyst) the Ancients could move awareness·individually and collectively·between the relative poles of energy and matter. This practical expertise was the apex . of an awesome pyramid of cosmological untferstanding, the pieces of which we are 'gradually picking·up and putting back together again. We are acquiring, with difficulty, the noncompartrnentalised thinking of a science/religion that predates and dwarfs even the great wisdom of oriental religion .. I believe it is proving to be the authentic revelation of our New Age,' .. Paul Devereaux


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Hills Save Your Own Seed You don't have to buy seed in photographic packets. Laurence D. Hills shows the ways and pitfalls of collecting your own seed. This is a much shortened version of his excelIent pamphlet, price 50p from HORA, Bocking, Braintree, Essex. EVER SINCE the Cistercian monks of Coggeshall Abbey domesticaled .the carrol in the 12th Century, we have grown the seeds that our Nation of gardeners need. Our seedsmen spend their fives trying to stop our vegetables returning to the weeds from which they grew. They keep our beet from becoming Seta yu/garis maritims, a sea shore weed (wh ich is why salt is used as 'a fertiliser for sugar beet), and our cabbages, brussels sprouts and savoys from becomjng Brassics o/eraces, which only survives wild on diffsand rocky islets which rabbits have never reached. Every vegetable in every country began as a weed, just as our beet, our cabbages and our carrots did, and each of them is struggling to get back to its past. Our seedsmen throw out these throwbacks which they call 'rogues' to keep our vegetables true, not only to the improvements that are our heritage from perhaps a thousand years of gardening. butthe·very latest products of genetical genius. Neyer try to raise any variety that is catalogued as an 'F.!. Hybrid'. This. is grown by seedsmen as two pure lines, often not particularly striking, but when they are artificiallYllollinated with each other's pollen, the result has the vigour of the first cross. This entails more work than normal seed growing which is why these 1'.1. Hybrids are always more expensive; but they can be worth the money. If you save seed from them this vigour is lost. There isanother advantage apart from the saving in money. By raising our own seed we can keep varieties in cultivation which the seed trade has discarded despite their advantages to gardeners, and which now may notbesold without a £100 fine because they are not on the National and European Registers. Market gardeners prefer vegetables that can be deared in a couplecdf days and packed off to market when the price is high. Gardeners, however, want varieties that will last till every one in the row is eaten, have algood flavour and be tougll and hardy through all seasons. Peas and Beans . These seeds involve the problem of the bees, for they can carry the pollen from one variety to anOther and therefore create problems of race relations. \ A few vegetabl .... such.as salsify .are .=S1P1' n·,er·]!·1';.etl··f. ... r. ..""'lll!$·atld.;t.._.,....." .....··j_ true to type. But most are hybrids, produced by deliberate cross breeding and selection throughout even Cen wries, ' and therefore it is a good ideij tg grow . only one variety in your ga"fen. You may not be able to control your neighbours bees, but


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you have a safeguard. Bees hate mixing nectar and pollen. If they start off on peas they will stick to them until they have finished the job, making a beeline back to the hive to take on another .load. Seedsmen simply put a hive beside one lot of antirrhinums, and another beside the pink ones, knowing that each will stick to the jobi;, hand, because if any worker wandered from pink to yellow, there would be a first class row. All Trades Unionists should keep bees. So buy a ktnd Ii ke Kelvedon Wonder, which has mildew resistance, and rapid growth so it can be sown for succession, and put in a series of batches. Reserve a row for seed from the first sowing, and do not pick any of its pods. As tho:.buds JO on opening the bees will bring rnore Kelvedon Wonder pollen from the 'later sown rows and you have higll odds on keeping yooTStock true. If you like a niaincrap, choose oh·kind and sow it twice, with an early' variety like Meteor or Peter Pan. Reserve your row always in the first sown batch because you are not only trying to get your peas as far as gre·n pods for eating, but. you want to harvest some of them for drying, and that is not easy·in sOme summers. . . Your seed row Will gradually dry off with leaves turni.g yellow and pods ligllt brown. When·the first pods to ripen begin to split at the lower ends, cut the pea haulms off level with the ground and spread them on sacks or polythene bags in the' 'SUn, or in wet seasons, hang them to dry in a shed with newspaper below to catch any shed seed. When the pods crack crisply they can be shelled by hand into bags and' h'ung from the shed roof to defeat mice or rats. Seed for raising needs to breathe, so dOllar store in polythene bags, or jars. There are three types of bean, four if you count soya beans. The first is the' Broad bean and its relations the field beans . .For seed purposes always sow the long podded varieties Aquadulce Claudia inNoyember,whichavQjds·k fly, \ aridcST·I·:lWll.'·to. harvest when they will be black dry an spl itting at the lower end. Spread them in potato chilling trays (unwanted until Spring) with opened out Colour Supplements on the bottoms stacked one on top of the other for free air circulation in a dry shed. When the pods spl it and twist, shell ou t the beans by hand, discarding any that are small or misshapen. Daffa beans are like broad beans with smaller but more frequent pods that point upwards instead of outwards. They are sown in the autumn in the saa:ne way and harvested in August as·ry seed. Tic beans are round and spring sown, with rather thinner skins, also ripening in August for storing. Both yield about twice the crop produced by. soya beans in countries where these do well, and more than 50 times the production of the Fiskeby V variety in gardens where this germinated in 1974. The second type of bean is the runner, the 'pole bean' of the USA which is not hardy and is sown in May. Sow seed of your favourite kinds in boxes in a cold frame in March and plant them out in early May to give the seedlings a flying start.


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When you raise for seed, just as with peas, you leave the first large pods and the new few generations because they will ripen first, free from pollen of any other runner in your garden or a neighbours. When these are dry and brown, towards the end of September, pick them and spread them out in trays like the broad beans to split and twist, ready to shell for next springs sowings. . The third class of bean is the 'French' bean, which came from Peru via Spain, following the equally 'French' marigold. This is·also May sown, but because it is a low bush it is easier to protect. Sow your seed in pairs a foot apart in early April, and two feet between rows. As your beans grow, tie them. to a stake. Fit a polythene bag over each pair to make a 'cloche' for the early p·rt of the growing Season. .French beans for eating will produce·heavy crop, provided they are' kept picked, but those for seed need to be high and away from the risk of wet soil and slugs. Parsnips are best lifted in the same way so that the best roots can be chosen, and replanted in December and January, with great care to avoid 'damaging the skins, because parsnips ,rot easily, They will ripen during August and the secret of good seed is to watch for when the pods in the king head split and ratde·the sign that the whole plant isready to cut and hang up to dry. . Th·se will set into heads of long black . seeds which shouldbe gathered into. .paper··d hu.ngto dr'y forstoragei·i . Beet are even more attractive in their seeding season, ChooSe the very . best and most shapely roots from those stored in peat and plant them in February, with the tops just below ground level in good well composted soil: If you are growing Cooks Delight, the best for raw eating, choose roots that are not' more than fifteen inches long and two and a half inches thick, and discard any that are round, and any that have white ring markings in the middle. The usual planting method is in ·threes, fifteen inches apart, where the red stems and foliage and the plumes of flowers rather Uke those of 8IIrberi. ·mnophyll·can be seen to advantage. When the plants reach. eighteen ;nche$ ·high, cut them back to a foot above ground so they branch sturdily and do not get too tall. Towards the end of August the whole plant will gradually, change colour from deep blood red and darkish green to brownish shades. Then ·the stalks should be cut off level with the ground and hung up to dry. The seed rubs out quite easily for storage. It looks like small, light brown dried raspberries, and is in fact a cluster of seeds in one, which is why seedling beet must always be thinned to the best in each position. Carrots, Beets and Other Roots . Every seed is designed for two jobs. Rrst it has its coded instructions on how lobe a beetroot (as an example) locked up in the DNA in its chromosomes, all the equipment it needs for the job, and the store of food to give it a starting stock before it can begin to harness the sun, the rain


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and:the soil to drive it through its cycle of life. Secondly, every plant must find some way of carrying that seed as far across the world as it can, to give it every chance of thriving with less competition or triumphing under new conditions. Carrots, parsley, celery and parsnips all belong to the same family, the Umbefljferae with the flowers in an umbel or flat head, dull, green and inconspic·uous, because they are not pollinated by bees which hunt by flower shape and colour, but by flies which follow scent alone. Along almost any carrot row there is a chance of finding one of these hasty seedlings with orange rather than\carrot reCi roots no th icker than a pencil at the top and driving·down to pencil length, and sudden foot to eighteen inch long flower stem. Never save seed from one, for its seedlings will be 'bolters' too. Select the best specimens from among the carrots you have stored in peat from the previous summers crop for eating, choosiog the largest and strqngest in r··February and March. Plant them in .sunny places with the root tops just below the ground. Seed carrots grow four feet high with a centre head, known as the 'king head' which is ready first in August, the side growths come later. When ripening is . near the shoots draw themselves more upright and turn yellow. Watch the king head, for when some of th'e pods open and spill, the others are ready to cut and hang in a dry shed with paper spread below mem to catch the seed. Paper bags can be tied over the heads to collect the seed, snipping out a couple of holes on opposite sides for ventilation. About October rub the seed heads through tfie fingers or spread them on··a flat surface on paper and run a rolling pin Iighdy OYer them. It is as well to clean your seed to some extent. Nylon sieves can be bought for the different sizes, the finest to take the dust out and the coarser to remove the husk from the different seeds, leav·. ing in those pieces which happen to be the same size. A small box with a perforated zinc bottom is worth making for a preliminary sift that removes the bulk of the rubbish. the rows when you pull from the first . sowing of spring in March, so the white flowers will·have had time to set to fat pods up the flower stems before there is any other brassica Pollen about. When the pods turn yellow and begin to split, showing the black seeds inside, cut off 'the flower stems to dry in the trays, then clean ready for packeling and storing. Seed of all the brassicas is so cheap that it is hardly worth saving your own, but if you must save it, choose one of the cheaper varieties because this is likely to be the easiest. Raise your cabbages in the ordinary way, but go over them carefully and take out anything.which is not perfectly typical of the particular kind. Then in September or October, cut the cabbage hearts from top to bottom along the row and then across it. The Cabbage Family One of the many differences between cabbages and men, is ihat we have


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the genes that carry our inherited qualities in forty·<ix chromosomes, and··they have eighteen. Broccoli, cauliflowers, most kales, cabbages and kholrabi are all descended from the wild BfB88ic·olencea from the cliffs of Britain and they . all have eighteen chromosomes. All of them can meet and join and change partners in the dance of life. For men and cabbage are alike in sharing their qualities gOod and bad, because they have no chromosome difference .. This is why th.e Cabbage family, or • 'brassicas' as they Me called are the worst of all subjects for amateur seed raising. .·All we can do is raise the easiest kinds, and trust to the fact that ;'ttY few cabbages will be flowering in other gardens when you are saving seed to keep your stock moderately true. Your other safeguard is that the seed of th is family keeps up to nine years. Turnips, however, are Br8S$;ca rapa with twenty chromosomes and keep themselves to themselves. They should be sown In Mayor early June to lift and store just like carrots, for March planting a foot apart and two feet between rows if you need a quantity. . . The bright yellow florets set round a sturdy stem will grow into long pods that should be picked when they yellow and start fo split, and placed in papered chitting trays to dry and sift clean enough for garden purposes. Radish seed is so cheap that it is hardly worth raising, but it' is easy, provided you uproot all the wild·radish in the garden, for this species with larger leaves than our farrfiliar kinds, and only small red roots, was also selected by the monks of the past, and the tw·cross freely. Simpjy leave behind one good radish roughly every nine inches along _c··._" _.·.. __ . __ ..... __ ... , This treatment lowers the risk that moisture will collect in the cabbage during the winter, and makes sure that the plants will grow new shoots from each quarter becoming about two feet high and four feet square and a mass of solid bloom. Brussels sprouts are rather easier. Grow your crop in the ordinary way, then stake them firmly and allow the top cabbage shaped portion to throw up a flower and set seed in August. The commercial method is to cut the stump down to the fOOt in spring and let the side shoots flower. . The problem of raising Brassica seed is the length of time that the ground is occupied, roughly three years, and the fact that though a seed grower can rotate his cabbage crops round his farm so each field gets a turn every nine years, the amateur gardener never has that much room. . , Lettuces. Leeks, Onions and Spinach Start by reserving the first row of each of your first two sowings for seed, and cut all the smallest for eating, leav·ing yourself with really nice specimens. Watch for the first to begin throwing up flower stems or 'bolting' and pull these out until you are left with perhaps fou r good ones, wh ich will grow taller and taller until, in July or August, they start to seed. The pods will 'fluff up' or become downy in appearance, ready to blow on.the wind for their dispersal, and it is . important to pick them to dry


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before they blow and waste. Saving lettuce seed involves leaving a row in till it matures, and therefore it should be sown where it will not block too much land. This applies still more to leeks because these occupy the ground·for two years. Sow your row of leeks in March or April to provide your normal . plantings, but leave good specimens at fifteen inch intervals to grow on for seed. They will look mudllike ordinary leeks through their first winter but through their second summer they will grow larger and larger, finally reaching four feet. They will need staking to support their heavy flower heads, and these Should be cut with the main stalks in October, hanging the great drumstick to dry until December. The. seeds inside the flower head should be black, and the flower shQlfld have start·ed to turn yellow before cutting with about a foot of stem. Leek seed is large and heavy and one way to clean it is to tip the sifted seeds in water, when the·chaff and any poor quality seeds will . float, and the good seed fall to the bottom. Do not leave this long in water but spread in a thin layer on paper in an ';'''o"f "Foday fewer and fewer gardeners raise onions from seed. Sets, which are small bulbs to plant in March are far easier, giving a more certain harvest in August whatever the summer, needing less care in preparing the onion bed·which used to be a major operation, and avoiding onion fly completely. It is possible to grow you r own onion sets. There are British firms selling home grown onion sets, notably Messrs Marshall of Wisbech, whose Giant Fen is a favourite with those who know their onions. Select a bed with really poor soil and sow your seed in an inch wide strip so they crowd each other, about half an inch deep in mid·May. Harvest them in September just like ordinary ohions, but pick out any larger than 14 an inch in diamter for cooking. Leave the smallei ones in trays to dry out thoroughly, remove the foliage and store them in a cool (350F is ideal) dry place until March planting time. The key to onion set raising is poor soil. Onions for seed should be selected for size and shape, choosing those that weigh at least half a pound, and are as hard as' bullets. Unless you are growing for friends you will need only two or three, for like parsnips and scorzonera, onion 'seeds keeps only for one season. Plant them again between the end of November and the end of January. Dig in compost and prepare the ground in the normal way, firming it as well as you can, and planting the bulbs a foot apart each way and with .the soil right up to their necks and well firmed round them. Towards the end of March the leaves should start away followed by the flower stems which should be staked when they reach two feet and retied as they grow to over three feet by August. Never put off staking because the plants can easily blow over .. breaking the roots and finishing the seed crop. We have bred onions for weight and size and even a good root system but not for the extra strength to hold ·i2 ( firm the seed stem. It is cheaper and easier to


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stake them. By the end of September the pods should be fully grown, and there will be four seeds in each. Peel back the skin and when the seeds are black the heads should be cut off,with eighteen inches of stem. Tie a paper bag over each head, with ventilation holes as for leeks, and hang the crop in 'a dry and sunny atmosphere to ripen, ready to husk and packet for next year's sowing only. Spinach is easy seed, but choose the rows for seed just as though they were . lettuces, pulling up the first to bolt until only the slowest are left. Leave the h9dS until the seeds blacke·and the lowest start to·tshed' or come out of the pods, then pull them, to hung in bunches over newspaper or the cut open polythene fertiliser bags which are a feature of the modern countryside that·may Ian like flint arrowheads. This is the round seeded summer spinach. The prickly seeded winter variety sown in August, or September should be saved from those which best came through the winter, which may well mean a large area of ground tied up if these were dotted over the bed. Sow other crops in between and pull the seed spinach as it ripens in May. The seed of both varieties last for about three years. 'Perpetual spinach or spinach beet lasts up to six years, It should be sown in April or May and the best row left unpicked to make sure it comes through the winter and throws up a seed stem like a beet ready to save seed in the same way. . Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Marrows and Pumpkins Both tomatoes and cucumbers need a greenhouse' with heat to start them as plants for cultivation in the open. Outdoor cucumbers, especially the new Japanese varieties that give frame or greenhouse quality from outdoor plantings can be 'PWtl under the polythene 'cloches' recommended for french beans for seed, but they f11ust be grown under . glass to gain the time they need to ripen their seed. . . We in Britain enjoy good tomato ripening weather about three years in five, with a wet summer full of potato blight (which also attacks tOmatoes and there are unf·ortunately no resistant varieties) making us give up in disgust, only to see our neighbours rejoicing in ripe fruit. Lelus assume you have two dozen tomato plants coming ready to pick befote the key date of September 6th. Each good fruit will hold between 150 and 250 seeds and it will keep at least three years, so you have plenty to choose from. For outdoor fruit, earliness is the main quality, so put a label against the first plants to ripen fruit on their first trusses. Ignore the first two ' trusses for seed but note how they ripen, for you want seed from the plant that produces the most fruit before September 6th, and il is worth keeping note! of yoor three best performers. The third and foorth trusses \viii . ProdCJce tl>e best seed, so choose the most shapely fruit from these, missing . the two next to the stem. TIe a tag label round the trusses and leave them on the plant till they are fully red ripe, which means about a


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fortnight more time than for ordinary picking. If they split . it does not matter, for splitting·s caused by dry weather harden ing the' skin and then rain pumping the fruit full of water, and acquired characteristics are notinherited You should not pick miss·shape" tomatoes for seed, or perfecr ones off the same plant because a tendency to have miss·shapen fruit is inherited. Do not take fruit with gteen patches at the stalk end, because that also is inherited. A flat brown patch at the blossom end is caused by calcium shortage, which can come from too much potassium sulphate fertiliser. This is not inherited, but the seed may suffer an·give poor germination, so do not use for seed. Cut your fruit from side to side, scoop out the core into a soup plate and wash the pulp well in water, meanwhile rubbing the seed gently with the tips of the fingers, changing the water once or twice while you are separating the seed from the pulp, and finally tip·the seeds into a strainer to drain. Spread the washed seed on a sheet of glass, or ideally a sheet of blotting paper and left to dry overnight in a warm room they can be packeted in two days time: It takes roughly ten pounds of fruit to yield one ounce of seeds, which is a great many. The cucumber family differ from all the other vegetables in this booklet because they have separated male and female flowers, just like bananas.' The new 'Burpless' cucumbers are F.l hybrids so cannot be saved successfully, and so i .. Femina, the almost all female flowered variety. The Chinese Long Green and the Japanese varieties, Kaga and Kariha can be saved and so of course can the old ridge varieties which are greatly inferior. It is worth watch·ing for new outdoor cucumbers that are not F.1s and breeding them, just as . my first employer did over fatty years ago. . Raise your plants in pots and train them lip the wires inside the greenhOuse, running strings beside them and tying the side shoots to these. Cut these shoots 'off after the second female flower which will have a tiRY cucumber behind iL' When'the male flowers, with simple' stalks, open, pick these, cut away the yellow trumpet flower from round the stamens or to male organs in the middle and brush this 'on to the centre of the female flowers when these are fully open. It is usually recommended to uSe a camel hair brush for this operation.' Apply plenty of pollen during the three days when it is fully open and the female flower withers, and leave the cucumbers that develop on the plant until the lower end of each fruit bulges out leaving the upper half slim, and they all tum yellow. This will be far , sooner than they will in the open. When you clear the greenhouse, about late October, slice the cucumbers length, ways and inside there will be rows of crealn yellow hard seeds just like those which were in the original packeL Wash, these and separate them fr9m the pulp, just as with tomatoes, and dry them in the same way. Cucumber seed can keep eight or nine years so one seeding wil! last for a


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long time. Marrows need no pollination but it is only possible to select them on the female side, for by the time you have a fruit, the male has done his worst. Ideal·Iy you need plenty of small marrows rather than monsters which take all the strength from a plant, so choose your seed marroW from the plant which has produced most individual fruit. Leave it on till it is fully ripe and so hard it needs a saw to cut, which is the right s·for making marrow jam.,' Pumpkin seed, like marrow seed, improves with age up to seven years and old seed is reputed to produce plants with a higher proportion of female flowers. The seed should be plump and heavy, frol)'l mature fruit weighing over 7 Ib, ' for the smaller ones are usually immature and their seed will not germinate well. Dry it like tomato seed and store it in' a cool dry drawer. Seed Potato Saving We don't use the real seeds of potatoes, ' of course. We use the tubers, specially, and expensively prepared. The cheapest way to get a good main·crop potato variety is to buy Desiree at your greengrocers and reserve those which are the size of large eggs. , ,If you look at a potato you will see that all the 'eyes' are at one end known as the 'rose end', Cut your spud down from the rose end to the bottom, length,ways as it were, just belore plant·ing, ideally with the eyes upwards. Before seed potatoes are planted they should stand, ros·end up in 'chit·ting trays', which are the light wooden trays with raised pieces at the comers that sit one on top of the other, which hold grapes or tomatoes. The trays should stand in a light, frost free shed, even a spare bedroom from about January onwards, growing stocky dark green shoots from the , eyes. Oloose the best potatoes for seed because the ideal size and shape has the best chance of doing well. Discard any with'the pustules of potato scab because you do not want to spread this non·serious but unsightly condition further in your garden. Grow your potatoes with good compost because you want ' your crop to have the finest flavour, and your next year's seed to have the resistance to disease that is reputed to come from good feeding. If you want to grow large potatoes for baking or because you dislike peeling little ones, disbud your seed by rubbing out all the little shoots, leaving only the two best on each tuber. When you are raising your own seed you can pick out those with the most shoots for planting in your seed row, because you want plenty of the smaller sizes. Should you decide to buy in seed potatoe·J it is bet·r to order varieties chosen for flavour and disease resistance from the few nurseries who offer a choice, to raise your own seed. Never buy imported new potatoes, . because, even if these were mature, . they would be specially grown for the country they come from. Seed


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potatoes are of course tubers, not the seeds of the potato plant. These are in the green·potato apples' which will be found in profusion among the potatei foliage in some seasons. They look like small tomatoes, for tomatoes' and potatoes belong to the same family and are highly poisonous. ' It is easy to save potato seeds by the methods described for tomatoes in a later chapter; and to raise them like tomato plants in a greenhouse, planting oul about June from March sowing. The result will be some bantam egg size tubers by October, which can be grown on to'produce full·sized crOps the following season. Every single seedling will be differeni. Plant your potatoes in the ordinary way, putting plenty of compost in the trenches' becouse i(your sDiU. short Of magnesium from too inucn potash, yOu' will get the leaves going yellow, with veins staying green and this can be mis·taken for a virus. Ideally, reserve an end row for seed Then, by the middle of August for maine rap and the last week in July for earlies, cut, down the haulm of your·selected row with shears and compost, the foliage. This means less than a full crop of course, but you do not want large potatoes, you want standard eggsize seed tubers which will keep. Spread your crop on the surface and leave it in the sun for 2·3 weeks. If the tubers go green with the light, then so much the better, and if you have time, turn your tubers so they have plenty of sun to ripen the skins all over. Store them in shallow boxes in the dark with not more than a three inch layer in each so they have free ;'ir circulation, until they are ready to set out in the chitting trays. POlatoes, like apples, keep best at 34·350F, and it is, more important to keep them cool than to worry too much aboul frosl. I t is always bel i;ved among gardeners that potato varieties deteriorate when grown for long periods on the same soil. Today this is regarded as a legend from the period when potato eelworm was caJled lpotato sickness' and viruses were 'not understood. Home Seed Testing Every seed you buy has been tested to the high standards of purity and ·germination laid down by the Ministry of Agriculture under the various Seed Testing Orders, of which the first was in 1917, and. there is an official seed testing laboratory at Cambridge. All seeds can be tested in an airing cupboard. The temperature should be 680F, and if you put a thermometer inside this will show how near you are to the maximum of 860F. Then count at least twenty seeds with tweezers and space them out on moist blotting paPer in a saucer. Finally cover with another disc of blotting paper which should be moistened before placing in the heated box or airing cupboard. Look at your samples at intervals and keep the blotting paper moist. The normal test time is three weeks, but radish seed and a few others may germinate in 24 hours. At the end of the period, count how many seeds


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have put out roots or even leaves. . If your germination is low, you can simply sow more generously. If your beans are below standard sow them in pairs and take out the smallest of each when they are well up. A problem of '. home seed raisers in fact is that because they have so much seed they sow too thickly and give their seedlings the handicap of a crowded start and themselves the work of·extra thinning.


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Gadsby & Hutton-Squire A Computer Study Of Megalithic Alignments 'There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, . And every single one of them is right' Rudyard Kipling (In Neolithic Times) It's quite easy to make.a computer hunt after leys and to check their accuracy of their alignments. Pat Gadsby and Chris Hutton·Squire have·been working in this area for some time. They describe what they've . been doing and report on their preliminary findings. In 1925 the Herefordshire antiquarian Alfred Watkins put forward the hypothesis that the ancient sites of pre·Roman Britain were deliberately aligned with one another. In his book·describing the hypothesis, The Old StnJight rrsck (Gamstone 1970) he christened these alignments 'Ieys'. In the fifty years since then his theory has never been scientific·ally tested, though many 'ley hunters' have succeeded in establ.ishing to their 'own satisfaction, if to nCH>ne else’s, the reality of the ley system. There were three reasons for this omission: i) Orthodox scientists·and archaeologists saw no reason to investigate phenomena they 'knew' to be imaginary ii) There was a shortage of reliable evidellGC iii)· Before the advent of the computer, there was a natural reluctahCe to under·take the backbreaking task of tabulating the many thousand possible alignments . between a set of sites and calculating the 'best fit' straight lines through them. For example, one hundred sites·a modest number in practice·would generate 161,700 trittds (sets of three points) and 3,921,225 retTttds (four points). Such is the awful power of the laws of combination and permutation. The lack of reliable data was made good by John Michell in 1974 when he published a description of the alignments that the had found between the fifty plus surviving standing stones of the land's End peninsula in Cornwall (The Old Stones of und's End, Gamstone). These stones, although some of them are twelve feet high, are small welldefined sites compared with those used by earlier less criticalley·hunters. Nevertheless, Michell claims that they are aligned over distances pf up to ten kilometres to 'rifle barre.I' accuracy. This display is the first independent test of his claim. This study is the frrst research . undertaken and it is.J:tOt yet romplete, i .·l·f,ct·::i.f& we feel that the results obtained so far are sufficiently definite and interesting to justify setting them before the public·at this time.


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Object 1. To cbeGk the accuracy of the 22 alignments between the 53 sites described by John Michell in The Old Stones of Land's End 2.· To tabµlate all of the other alignments between these sites. 3. To tabulate the alignments between a similar set of randomly placed sites. Method 1. To attempt to describe th·programs used in the computer runs wou Id take a great deal more space than is available here. I t is sufficient to state that they work and that further details can be obtained by anyone·who is interested. 2 The computer was used to Calculate the best fitting straight line through each of the 23,426 possible triads (set of three points) by the standard statistic,", method of linear·regression. This method minimises the sum of the sqUares of the displacements of th·points from the line. 3. The triads tbat.matched our standards of accuracy were 'tabulated. The two standards that were applied were: . i) width needed to cover all three points tobe less than 10 metres ii) ratio of width to length to be less than 1 :100 (i.e:1 metre per kilom·tre) 4. It is important to note that these standards are arbitrary; in fact they derive from a study of the preliminory runs we did. There is no theory of leys that says how narrow they should be. Som·e dowse .. that we have spoken to consider that leys are no more than two metres wide . 5. Best fitting straight lines were calcu·. lated by the same method for potential high·order alignments that the first run had revealed. 6. The same exercise Was carried out on the simulated data. Data1. In The Old Stot?ft of Lllnd's End . john Mictrelilists 53 sites comprising: 4 stone circles 5 quoits (I.e. three or more stones piled on each other) 7 crosses . 36 standing stones and 1 holed stone ('Men and Tol') 2. The National Grid references of 45·olthese sites were re·estimated to ten figures (i.e. to the nearest metre) using 6 inch Ordnance Survey maps and a pi digitiser. 3. The remaining stones were discovere by John Michell during his field·work are not marked on the Ordnance SurVey maps. He has accurately surveyed the loeation of four of these but only estim ted the location of the others. 4. The ten figure grid references of the seven most important stones in


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the . Boscawen·.un Circle were taken from the' 1 :2500 (25 inch: 1 mile) Ordnance Survey plan of the area. 5. The Ordnance Survey states that positions taken from these maps are su ject to statistical uncertainty inherent in the mapping proee<s. The average error is not more than 3.5 metres but results suggest that the positions taken are accurate to 1 metre. 6. Random number tables were used to generate a set of imaginary references for the 53 points. Only the final three . figures of each reference were changed, so that the imaginary points each lie in the same kilometre square of the National Grid as their real counterparts. This ensured·thot while the deliberate alignment (if any) of the real points was destroyed in the simulation data, their·distinctly non·random clustering was no Results 1. John Michell lists 22 alignments between the 53 sites. We found that 20 of these alignments match our standards; The two that failed are both aligned on site 28 (the Merry Maidens steme circle). . One alignment is 12 metres wide and the other is 2 metres wide but only 1 kilometre long. Both are probably aligned. on the cirCumference of the circle rathori than its centre, but we have not yet beClI·able to test this. i The average width of the 20 lines is 1 ! metre) the maximum width is 7 metres·.·and 7 alignments are exact fits (to thel nearest metre). 2. John Michell gives 7 alignments on the stones of Boscawen·un·Circle. We . have confirmed all of these (see the accompanying plan and table). Note that vie regard line 1 and II as forming i single five·point line, while·John Michell considers that they are distinct. . 3. Allowing a·maximum width of 20 metres, we found only one five·point alignment, the one mentioned above. We confirmed the three four·point alignments claimed by John Michell. , sites T·6·7·8 (width 3m, leJlgth 4.6 km) 46·116·47··48 (width 7m,length. 4.8 km) and 4·9·16·17 (width 2m, leng1!1 8.7 kint" and we fOllnd two more: sites 2·12·16·17 (width 14m, leng1!1, 6.7km) , {this is close to, but distinct from, the·previOlls line; it is in factan extension of a triad (2·12·16) listed by' John Michell) and 7·'·14·18·99 (width 6rri, length . 4.9 km) (this is a completely new alignment)··These fIVe lines are shown on the map. 4. We found 29 new triads making a total of 51. The full list is given on the com·puter printout headed '...wysis' .. 5. We found that site 17 ('A stone in th,;·.AedFat Sennen')aJso has 7 alignments . running throu&h it. This stone Sl3nds near Und's End itself, opposite the First and Last Inn. In addition to the three. alignments listed by John Micheli. 4·9·16·17 20·18·17 . we found: 2·12·16·17 (already mentioned) and three new·triads: 6·15·17 50··27·17 and 26·19·17 The avenge width of these 7 lines is 4 metres. The simulated site 17 has only


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one line through.ft, so this appears to be IQOd ,evidence Ofdeliberalll alignment. 6. The simulated data yielded one tetrad and only 34 tri;lds (I.e.·two·thirds of the . yield from the real data).. ' 7. On average, each real site lies on three lines; each simulated si·1m only two. 8; 1l1e sites that score an above average number of lines on the real data, score below average on the simulated run (e.g.. site 17 already mentioned). And vice ' _: the bottom 9 reaJ sites lie on 9n1y 7 lines between them; the same 9 simulated sites lie on 281ine5. This aPpears to be evidence of the deliberate non·Iignment of these low'scoring sites.. 9.The average width of the 20 alignments of JOOn·Micheil is·1 me!!"e: that of the new triads between the reaJsites Is 4 metres. The combined average (3 metres) is the Same as that of the triads between the simulated sites. Statistical Remarks 1. It is easy to show that if the sites are scattered at random over the map. then .. the number of aJignments with three, . four, five etc. sites on them will (approximately) follow a Poisson distribution with parameter k. where k is the expected number of sites on a line drawn between any two sites and (rOUghly) theprobability that any line will have one or more sites on it. The Poisson analysis must be used cautiously as no experiments have been done so far to see how welHt fils resulls calculated from an actual set of random points. I t does, however; have the meri t of being familiar and easy to calculate. There is an added reason for caution in this case:.it Is obvious to inspection, and easy to prove statistically, that the . poinls are not scattered at randoin. but clustered into two groups .. Nevertheless the analy&is casls an interesting light on the results we have got. . 2. The formula for k is: k=Nxy/A . where N is the number of sites (53) K is tlie width allowed (10 metres) y is th·e average length (6.5 km for the simuladon) and A is the area of map (140 km2); These values give a resuldor k of 0.025. 3. This means that, on average, only one line in forty will have a third site on it. . The number of possible lines between points is 1,378. So we would expect about 34 triads from the simulated data. The actual score is 36. 4. Similarly we can calculate thai the expected number of tetrads is only 0.4 (i.e. we would expect to get four tetrad, from every ten simulation runs carried out). The score from this run was one tetrad. 5. The re·lts of,the run using the real sites·(l 'pentad,S tetrads and 51 triads) are well above chance. Unfortunately we cannot put a figure on·the odds against this result occurring.by chance alone: (what statisticians call the signifiCance . level) as we do not know the actual probability distribution of alignment numbers. What we can say is that the expected number of pentads, according to the Poisson formula, is only 0.004. This means,


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roughly, that we would expect to get one pentad by chance from 250 runs. The odds against getting 51 triads are about 160 to 1. Discussion The question we must ask is: Are these results'iUfficient to justifY us rejecting what statisticians call the Null HypothllSis '(i.e. the hypothesis that the stones are clustered but not aligned), so that.the alignments are no more than chance effects? This question is usually answered by,calculating the odds against the observed result being the work of chance alone and rejecting the nunhypothesis if these odds are higher than some conventionjlt figure, 20 to 1 or 100 to 1. This straightforward, approach is·not open to us as it is apparent, and·quite easy to prove statistically, that the sites are not randomly distributed but are clustered together in particular areas. This means that the only way that we can discover the odds against a set of sites aligning by chanc·is by.doing a series of simulation expedments similar to the one described here. . What we can say is that these results are sufficiently striking to justifY further reseiuch. . Further Work The most promising line of attack on these resul·for any sceptic is to argue that the set of sites used was selected posthoc by John Michell from the much larger set of possible sites and that sites which didn't align were deliberately not listed. It is to this problem we now tum. John Michell has told us that he found these sites by a combination of study of the 6" maps of the area and fieldwork. His list is certainly not exhaustive nor was it determined by some a priori objective criteria. . We are fortunate that Land's End is ·one of the very few areas of Britain for' which an exhaustive and objective gazetteer ot ancient sites has been ·published. The West Penwith Survey by Vivien Russell (Cornish Archaeological Society, c/o Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro) was being preparea while Michell was working on The Old Stones of Land's End and was in fact published just before it. It lists a further·sixty..ood sites, mostly crosses, that there is no apriori reason to omit So our next task is to tabulate all the alignments between this enlarged set of sites·This presents a problem as the time required for the tabulation goes as the cube of the number of sites, Le. it is • increased eightfold to about 20 hours , on our present system (plus another ' twenty for a simulation run). So it may b. a while before we get it done. We also intend to 00 some studieS of random. sets of data to see how good a fit we get to the Poisson formula. This problem has excited some controversy among mathematicalleyhunterswhich we hope to resolve. It remains' our . ·opinion, however, that the correct way to evaluate the significance of a set of alignments is to compare them with the results of a simulation as we have done·and nOt with a formula which m.ust always be only approximately valid. The usefulness of the Poisson formula is that it


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provides a quick·timate of what is to be expected'in a particular case. The result is often quite chastening: it is surprising how unsurprising some of the 'surprising' results that leyhunters have found actually are. . This report was first produced for an exhibition which was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts during April 1976,' and it was subsequently published in The Ley Hunler. The response from the ley hunters has been very disappointin& We had hoped thatwe would be offered other groups of data for analysis, but, so far, no·one has appr.oached us. The set of programs is a dOal·pu.rpose tool·it can examine relativel9 I·r.ge nu mbers of potentialley·marke'rs and then list the triads which·re worth furtfter investigation; or, it can be used to evaluate leys, that have already been found. We would·appreciate some response from the out: side world, so get in touch with us please! The Boscawen·un Cucle Alignments This plan shows how the six ali·ments that converge on Boscawen·un·Orcle are aligned ol\to individual stOnes of, the circle. The Roman numerals are those used by John Michell. The stone numbers refer to the computer listing. The plan is derived from the survey made by Professor Thorn. Note that we regard lines 1 and II as forming a single·fivepoint line, while John Miehell considers that they are distincL Description ,The following descriptions are taken, from the Old Stones of Land's End by John Michell (Garnstone Press, 1974). I. Boscawen·un Circle·stretch of old '·' walled track towards Boscawen·un Farm ·Cross A·Stone 3·Church of St Piran, Perranuthnoe.This is an extension of Lockyer's line 5. , II. Stretch of walled track '··Boscawenun Circle·Stone 4·Stone 5. This line 'deviates by no more than one degree from. alignm.ent I: From the Circle Stone 4 stands out on the skyline,. and when this stone is approached from the direction of the circle, Stone 5 appears in view behind it. These two stones are placed like sur·veyor's rods, one on the near and one on .. the far side of a ridge as seen from the Circle. III. Boscawen·un Circle·fallen stone at 41822707·Stone 6·fallen stone [? I at 42432682·Stone 7·Stone 8 .. Lockyer's line 6 in his astronomical survey of Boscawen·un is drawn from the Circle to . Stone 6, marking the Noyember sunrise, In fact Stone 6 could never have been visible from. the Circle, but on the same line, nearer the Circle and at the point of 'extreme visibility from it, a tall pillar lies recum.bent and half buried .·few yards from Stone II. This fallen stone must have been the original November sunrise marker. Following the line eastward, a large erect boulder, Stone 7, was found .. at Toldavas Farm, and another, indented·with cup marks and also previously unrecorded, at Castallack 1Stone 8). Stones . 6 and 7 are not intervisible,


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and there was probably once a stone between them, visible from both. This would have been . where a cattle trough rests on what may be the fra·ments of a fallen longs tone. ' Thus between the Circle and the sea at Pezner Point are three standing and one, possibly two, fallen stones placed on one straight line. IV. Stone 2·Boscawen·un CircleStone marked on 6·inch a.s. map at 39782594. V: Centre of disc barrow at Boirea, 40313133·'courtyard house', 40423076· Cross B·Boscawen·un Circle·Cross C·Cross D. VI. Boscawen·un Circle·Stone 18 Cross E. VII. Stone 19·Boscawen·un Circle Stone 20·approximate site of lost stone at 45592648·St Oement's Isle. The survey by Sir Norman Lockyer referred to is in Chapter XLII of his classic work, Stonehenge And Other. British Stone Monuments Astronomically considered (London 1909). Acknowledgements Our thanks are due to: , Vivien Russell, whose excellent field work among the ancient sites of .. the Land's End peninsula (published as.·t ' Penwith Survey) was the foundation on which this sWdy,has been buil t. Robert ForreSl of Bury, Lancasbire, Wl;whose unpublished essay The Linear Dream provided the stimulus for this ·work. . Galdor Computer centre of Surbiton, Surrey, whose generous gift of free·computer time made it possible. John Michell for friendly criticism. John .Cox of·the lCA for the two maps.


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Fletcher Christopher Wren's BeehiveJohn Fletcher thinks he has found the seventeenth century predecessors of the Undercurrents collective. At any rate, he shows us Christopher Wren's design for a glass beehive . . 'IF YQU are th"""rt of poi"," who thinks all psychialljsts are mad, then you're' . probably also the sort ofa\¥kwar.d sod who holds the emphatic opinion that all . experts are, by definition, invariably IWTong. The great radical movements ' which swept England during the Civil War were of the same unco·operative cast of mind. Lawyers were fervently distrusted, and their self·serving rituals and obscure language detes.!Od, Diggers and Levellers defended themselves successfully on many occasions in court, and proposals were made for sefting up a community, based system of justice and law enforc&ment, which would be run for the people by the people, ,The medical profession, , then as now a system which preyed on sickness rather than health, was to be reorpnised, mixing esoteric medical skills·which were to be made access·ibie to all members of soc:iety·willi the older methods of herbal and folk rem·edies. Education, aHoday, was the " preserve of an elite, and structured to defend and reinforce that elite. Each community ,was to elect"and finance its own school teachers. Those who wished to go on to higher education first had to be mature in years and have served the community, Secondly, to avoid the creation of an artificial academic elite which spoke its own esoteric and self·serving language, students were to sup·port themselves throughout their university resiilenco by manuallallour during the day, followed by study in the evening·Maoism without either the Mao or the ism, Seventeen new universitie, were proposed, of which Durham Universi,ty is the only surviior. All the radicals of the Civil War were products of that most ancient and vener·able English tradition, now thankfully reviving, of self·education. They firmly, believed that all formal education, whether private or state, indoctrinates and automates, and that the only true, liberating education, is self·education. As can be seen, the instinctive direction ,in which many English people were , moving in the,late'I640's and early 1650's, left little room for experts every man his own expert! Such an attitude was exemplifiectin the field of science and technologoy, and is why the period is so instructive and encouraging for readers of Undercurrents. Late medieval man lived in a world very similar to our own·one of endless rigid and remote physical, Men tal and spiritual hierarch ies·, politically, socially, intellectually, and religiously, he was one tiny part in a vast machine, and felt all the fashionable feelings of alienation, boredom, anonymity, etc, etc, Then, OYer a period of about a hundred years, came the Renaissance. The translation of the Bible into everyday language


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removed at ' a stroke the necessity Of the weighty bureaucracy·'the Caiholic Church to intercede between the individual and God, One spoke as an equal with,God. and in the case of many such as John Milton, man proved to be considerably more equ.al than God, The printlng"press democralizedtnowtedge, The fundamen·tal rO)'Olutionary gnosis of the Renaissance, "Just as today, was the realisation 'by man of his own explosive, almost infinite potential. Whether it has been , thrOU1h Zen .Buddhism, LSO or rock II"AIsic, ,we likeWise 500 the possibi/lty of ceasing to be·gers in a 5trange land, and of Ilying in harmony with the vast natural energies and forces of the universe around us. That is the vision' that fundamentally drives us·the microcosm and the microcosm as one and it compulsed the Renaissance, and all,the resursent glioses before it. Man's Natural Harmony Science and teehnology were then seen , as the means of ..,hieving this unity, of building a harmonic paradise on earth. ' The Fall of Man was taken as symbolising the loss of man's natural harmony with the universe·science and technology would restore the equilibrium. The great impetus to this modem scientifIC mllVement came with the rediscovery in fifteenth century Italy of ancierit platonic, hermetic and cabalistic texts. (See uca·Breaking the Hermetic Seal). The Cabala texts illustrated the perfect harmony of the universe in . mathematical """'s, and the modem developmen'tof mathematics stems from the attempts of Renaissance magi! scientists to avail themselves of the same powers as God'and the ArlCients, and conjure themselv·s iAto Eternity. ' 'Alchemy and astrology were likewise given immense boosts by'hermetic and cabalistic texts which joyously proclaim·ed the pantheistic creed that divine enetgy is immanent in all material creation. Renaissance science was·much more all.embracing in its brief than its mOdem GOUnterpart·it attempted not only to answer the question how a phenomenon operates, but also why·a question, which modem science is having to return to. If you have God or panthe·istic energy immanent in all natJJreand many Renaissance scientists/magi like Bruno, Kepler, Galileo, Copernicus, and Brahe, were pantheists rather than Ouislians·then the more you study nature, the more you discover of God. ·As Bruno wrote in 1584: 'Thus crocodiles, cocks, onions and __ turnips were never worshipped for themselves, but the Gods and the divinity in crocbdiles, cocks and other things, which divinity was, is, and will be found in diverse subjects .. '. You see, then, how one simple divinity which is in all thin·One fecund ' naMe, mother.and preserver of the unkoerse, shines forth, in diverse' subjects, and takes diver .. names, according as it communicates itself divercely'. Gerard Winstanley was.in the same tradition when he wrote in the Law of Freedom in 1652: 'To know the secrets of nature is to know the works ,of God', , , And,


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indeed if you would' know spiritual things, it is to knowhow the spirit ot power of wisdom and life, causing . molion or growth, dwells within and governs both the several bodies ofthe stars and planets in the heavens above; and ,the.severalbodies of the eJll1l1 below, as gras$, plants, fishes, beasts, birds and m:jl1kind; For to reach God beyond the creation, or to know what he will be to a,man after a man is dead, if any otherwise than to scatter him into his essences of fire, earth, water and air of which he is compounded, is a knowledge beyond the line or ' capacity of man to attain to while he lives in this compounded body'. Medieval Magic This new reverence for nature brought about a massive new interest in astrology. Walter Raleigh argued: 'If we cannotileny , but that God hath given virtue to springs and fountains, to cold earth, to plants and stones, minerals, and to the excremental parIS of the basest living creawre, why , should we rob the beautiful stars of their workingllowers1 For, seeing that they are many in number and of eminent beauty and magnitude, we may not think that in the treasury of his wisdom who is infinite, there can be wanting, even for every star, a peculiar virtue and operation; as every herb, plant, fruit, flower, adorning the face of the earth hath the like', Astrology was,not applied to prediction so much as to advic,e and counselling. QueenEliza' , abeth, Cromwell, E.sex,Charles Ii, William Harvey, Dryden and Newton all r·gularly consulted their friendly . local astrologers·Diggers wanted astrology available on their version of the National Health·and when the great solar eclipse of 1652 arrived on 'Black Monday' to widespread ... trologi·cal predictions of the imminent millen·, . ium, the rich left London in drovesa feat equalled only by the Chartist uprisings of 1848 and the noar General Strike of 1911. Copernicus dedicated his work to the Egyptian magician and contemporary of Moses, Hermes Trismegistus, founder of a religion dedicated to the worship of the sun as God·the sun, logically enough as God, inhabiting the centre,of the universe. Likewise, alchemy was very much the province of the social radicals·as a disgruntled conservative wrote in 1664·'The late years of the tyranny (The Commonwealth) admitted stock weavers, shoemakers, millers, masons, carpenters, bricklayers, gunsmiths, porters, butlers etc to write and teach astrology and physic', One radical alchemist who Isaac Newton much admired confidentially predicted irj 1645 that he would shortly be able to transmute base metals into gold, and thus undermine the entire system of inteination·1 monopoly finance 'the antichr!stian beast will be dashed to pieces'. Unfortunately, this public·spirited gentleman was shortly afterwards visited by the seventeenth century equivalent of 'an unknown karate expert', thus leavIng us only with one of the great 'Ifs' of history. On the continent at the start of the century, the authorities had become so alarmed at this explosive


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mixwre of social and scientific radicalism amongst the lower classes, in which every kind of magic and occultism was rampant, that the terror of mass executions, witch hunts, and riwalised book burn·ings had to be instituted against the radicals, while·officjaJ' scientists like Descartes and Masennes, who toted the correct political, social and religious, lines, and who argued that science should stick to 'rational', pure, moderate goals, received wide publicity and, financial backing from the authorities. Science was Intering its long and un·becoming liaison with power .In England, the storm came later, and was all the fiercer as a result. In Elizabethan times radical social and political and religious groups like the Anabaptists and Family of Love, who held allpropef!Y in common and denied the existence of the Christian God, translated and widely disseminated through illegal underground printing presses hermetic and cabalistic scientific textS. Such groups were par,ticularly strong amongst the self·employed artisans and craftsmen throughout the country, and centred upon the notoriously radical artisans and apprentices of London. A halfway respectable magus, john Dee, translated·for an artisan audience, the architectural works by Vitruvius, in which cabalistic theories of man as the measure of his universe (as in Leonardo's drawing) and speculations on the dimensions of the New jerusalem were inextricably mixed with practical architectural . instruction. The Elizabethan theatres, constructed by London artisans for the patronage of London artisans, were "not only constructed on cosmic Vitruvian architectural principles, but the stage symbolised the world·all the world's a stage'·and was used to demonstrate , and debate' cosmic principles and , questions in dramatic form. Magic it this time embraced both spiritual evocation and the use of mechanical devices to perform seemingly 'magical' tricks, and technology, as in classical Olina and Rome, was applied mainly, outside war, to the entertainment and enlightenment of man, not yet having undergone its unholy marriage with' capital. Bacon and Dee Sir Francis Bacon most openly artic\llat·ed this combination of science and radi·o cal social ideas in his 'New Atlantis', where he argued 'For man by the Fall fell at the same time from his siate of innocency and from his dominion oVer I T I nature. Beth of these lo·sesJ however, can even in this life be in som·sort repaired; the former by, religion and' , faith, the latter by the arts and sciences'. To modern ears, this might sound to be exploitative of nature, but Bacon stress<;,d that 'Nature cannot be commanded except by being obeyed'. In 1621, William Goudge and Henry Frick published the .'World's Great Restauration', in which they modl>stly proposed that, using the new Baconian science, Jerusalem should be built in England. They were imprisoned for their cheek, but their ideas were circu·lated widely amongst the artisan classes and am<>ngst young radicals like John


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Milton an·John Everrard at Cambridge. Pressure was also growing that science and technology should·directly applied to everyday life, especially for small·scale subsistence agriculture, to alleviate the burden of labour which rested 6n most of humanity. rhe foremost pupil of Bacon, Samuel Hart·lib;, started up a universal correspondence system, in which all eminent scientists would publish their discover·ies and inventions, which could then be adapted and be applied by anyone who saw advantage in them. Rather than the patent system, it was argued, would undermine the system of private wealth by allowing common people to become self·sufficient in a common wealth. The universal cprrespondence system quickly spread through Europe with Hartlib as its post box·its most not·able contributor being Comenius, the scientist/magus from Transylvania (Ye., Transylvania)·and all the way to the American colonies. It covered such diverse subjects as mining and agricul. tural·then both mainly family industries·fishing, social engineering, medicine, scientific invention, silk·worm farming, and mathematics. Through this. system, Hartlib published proposals for a utopian community Autilia, to be set up in Virginia, laying down the ways in which the communitY·could operate. His ideas had a great inAuiloce on Roger Williams of New England, ,,",,0 was in the process of being expelled from his home colony of Massachusetts for promulgating such unfashionable vie ... as the need for total religious toleration, and the c'orreclness of first asking Indians if they wished to sell the iand which you had your eye on, and then, if they said yes, actually offering them the fair market price for the land. Thrown out for such outrageous beliefs, Williams promptly set up his own state - ·RhQde Island. . Sam Hartlib To get back to the grim realities of dear old England·since the Anglo·• Saxon visionary has always operated best. in space, and space is the one commodjty modern Britain lacks. Sam Hartlib came into his own with the Ov·War and the breakdown of the old political and social structure. His tirst act was to invite Comenius to Britain in the early 1640's, and together they set about'propagandising a, new educational system, for women as well as men, which would make know·ledge and scientific discovery available to all through an Office of Addresses, and provide a mouihpiece for debate and di .. cussion of the practical application of these discoveries. As Comenius wrote, 'We are all fellow citizens of the world, all of one blood, all of us human beings'. The physicist; Robert Boyle, himself a member, wrote that the members of Hartlib's 'Invisible College' practised 'so extensive a charity that it reaches unto eVerything called man', taking"the whole body of mankind for their care'. Winstanley developed on this system, proposing that each community should elect two postm·ters, one of whose jobs would be to publicise all inventj,ons: They would collect and report statistical information about the health and welfare of their


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communities, and would publicise important information from other parts of the country reported to them from regional centres. Trade secrets would be,aboJished; and human competitiveness, rather than being expend4 ed in competitive economic rat race, would b·channeled into alleviating the human Condition and producing objects that were both practical and beautiful like William Morris. The Invisible College They produced an extended and easily readable pamphlet which dwelt firstly on the lousy level of husbandry in England, and secondly propagated and explained the advantages and techniques of the Brabant rotational husbandry of hay; roots, cattle, and grain, 'which, with God's blessing, I hope will rebound to the filling of our pastures with CaWe;our gardens with all sorts of roots and herbs, our Garners with stores of Grain, to the wonderful good of the place'. The Brabant system was, in fact; identical with 'Turnip Townshend's 'famous Norfolk Systom of rotation, which revolutionised agriculture in the next century, 'bo.Jt while the Office of Addresses system was intended for the general application of all the people on commonly·owned land, the _Townshend. system was applied by private Individuals for private gain. Hartlib's prophecy of increased produc:tion"however, 'by the abundance. of these, we might better our Being, beyond what at first thoughts can be apprehended'. The second book was on the cultivation of fruit trees,·which, it was suggested, should be planted throughout the country, lining the roads 'and all common ground. They would provide free and abundant fruit, cider, perry, melomels (honey and fruit fermentation), feed for callie, wood, shade and beautiful blossoms in spring. The third was entitled 'The Reformed CoilJmonwealth of Bees', a collection of articles and letters, and was published in , 1655. Beekeeping was popular and common in seventeenth century England. Not only were drinks like mead far more common in such times, but, a bit as varintls French reg.ions today are valued for the different qualities of their wines, or different West Country villages and . Jareas in the last century w·re renowned for their particular, and often peculiar ciders, different areas of Sri tain were valued for their different sor·of honeY. For mead making, honey 'from dry open COlI n tries where there is much wildThyme, Rosemary and Flowers is best', and that from Hampshire, Norfolk and around Bisletter was in especially high demand: It was, in fact, a thriving little industrv, with its own civilisation, and there was much natural and scientific interest in how bees organised themselv·es. Indeed, anyone who has ever entered the whirlpool of a swarm of bees, where about half the swarm are a·dense cling·. ing brown mass, and the·other half thunder round in a circle of about ten yards, will know that it is as though they have entered a new universe, in which the power of the swarm is not only physical, but tangibly psychic and even spiritual·I know, I've been in one


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while writing this article! The pamphlet . aimed to simultaneously' instrUCt anyone how to set up in the production of honey·and even the poorest man with the minimum of land 'can keep bees. and to inspire the readership by the pre·sentation of an ideal commonwealth. The pamphlet was entitled: The Reformed Commonwealth of Bees The Feminine Monarchy, or the History of Bees, Showing Their admirable nature and properties, Their generation and Colonies, Their government, Loyalty, Art, Industry, Enemies, Wars, Magnanimity, Etc· The Artides were: 1. A History of Beekeeping. 2. An Experiment on the generation of Bees, practised by that great husband·man of Cornwall, M Carew. Carew was probably the brother of loon Carew, who was executed in 1662 for attempting to assassinate O1arles II, having already got rid of his father, O1arles I, by signing his death warrant in 1649. 3. Dr Arnold Boat’s·Observations upon the Experiment of the Generation of Bees. This next paragraph should not be read by the (I break off this artide to relate the most extraordinary incident Having reached the words 'be read by the' I gradually became aware of this strange roaring sound as though the heavens were turbining into orgasm, and what should I see, on rushing ou·ide, but a huge swarm of bees disappearing down our next door neighbour's chimney. We have just spent the last three hours digging the awkward sods out of it, and as they were not the gentle, if greasy, wop bees, but a load of bloody·minded Anglo Saxons; I am now typing this artide in some pain·may they all roast in hell! To get back to the commonwealth of new harmony ... J squeamish, bat it should be remembered that, just as then yeas·and other microorganisms for fermenting alcOhol and making cheese and bread had to be conjured out of thin air, so bees did not arrive courtesy of British Rail, but had to be produced on the site. Dr Arnold Boat's method of making bees: 'Take a calf, or rather a Sturk (·teer) of a year old, about the latter end of April, bury it eight or ten dayes, till it begin to putrify and corrupt, then take it forth of the . earth, and opening it, lay it under some hedge, or wall, where it may be most subject to the Sun, by the heat whereof it will (a greater part of it) turn into m.zgo·, which ,(without any other care) will Jive upon the remainder of the corruption. After a while, when they begin to have wings, the whole putrified carcase would be carried to a place prepared, where the hive> stand ready, to which, being perfu"1ed with Honey and sweet herbs, the Maggo·(after they have their wings) will resort The gentle·. man of Cornwall that practised this Experiment used hogsheads (barrels), or bi·er wine casks instead of hives. 4. The New Beehive. A discourse on the right·making of beehives, by that zealous, public·hearted and learned gentleman, Thomas Browne, Doctor in Divinity. He describes how the Ancients made honey without killing the


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bees. (Right up till the end of the nineteenth century, bees were killed at the end of each season, to get at the honey). Browne, being a cabalist and platonist in favour of divine harmonies, argues the merits of round beehives over square ones. Diagram. 5. A query upon Doctor Browne. An impassioned letter in favour of square hives. 6. A Letter discovering a new kind of Excellent Food for bees. Grow anise near·hives·it 'proves the best means of multiplying and keeping them, as also for their breeding a great store of honey'. Rub it inside a new hive, and feed it to bees, whiCh, as a result, will breed three swarms a year. New hives should be placed close to an old hive prior to swarming, and the entrance, full in the sun, rubbed with anise. 7. An impassioned exposition of Why anise should not be used with bees. 8. How anise may be got to grow in England, as taUght in that excellent book, called 'The G¥den of Eden', a< follows: 'Sowe .English anise·seeds, when the Moon is at the fulle, in February'. . 9. A translate of a letter written in . High Dutch, communicating a secret for the better ordering and preserving of bees. Diagram. . 10. The next correspondent starts on a general point about the theories of the Office of Addresses. 'If a man, who has to any measure of real discovery, should a< freely impart the same to such, of whose sinc·rity he is assured, and withal such, who with himself are daily searchers into the secrets of Nature, I am confident, that by this joint improvement of their utflJost ability, more in some few years would be found out, than by anyone single man could be attained, though he live to a very great age'. He then proceeds into an impassioned debate on precisely what sort of maggo·crawl out of carcasses, and talks, in a·voice thrilfing with natural curiosity, as though he has several·meadows filled with corpses in various stages of putrefac·tion, Does one learn more about Nature in a biology lab or in a summer .meadow? He goes on to describe how to feed bees with sugar, and repeats the rhyme which is still used amongst bee keepers today: A swarm in May is worth a ioad of hay, A swarm in Jµne is worth a silver spoon, A swarm in July iSn't worth a fly. He is also self·sufficiency buff, arguing that if Britain were to produce more mead, she would be able to.cease import·ing what drained the seventeenth cenu.ry balance of payments as badly as Arab Oil ·today·French wine. . 11. Letter from Mr William Mewe, of Easlington, Glos, dealing with the mystical experiences he has undergone since constructing a transparen't beeh'ive. 12. Yes, folks, this is the correspondent YdU've all been waiting fnr. Once more, Undercurrenrs brings you another. first, a status symbol to make your neighboul> gasp and the Sunday Times Colour Supplement go out of


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business. By tireless research in the British Museum (it was notal fluke, actually, I was trying. to find out something about the vegetar·ian ranter from Somerset, John Robins, who claimed to be the oldest man in the world·having been born before Adam·and that his wife was about to give birth to the real Messiah. He intend·ed to regather the 144,000 members of the lost tribe of Israel in the Holy Land, and set off on the Bath Road with a large crowd of enthusiastic follo'Wers,·I but only got a< far as London, where he I was put in Clerkenwell clink for disturb·., ing the peace). Still, you too can be the I person in Raynes Park to have a beehive j personally designed for you by Christopher l Wren:·13. A final concluding remark from . Sam Hartlib. 'I am apt to believe that when God set Adam in the Garden of Eden to husband and dress it, He meant him to exercise his Industry, not only in discovering the fruitfulness of perfect nature, which, in itself, could not but cause great delight to his understandin& but also, by exerting his labour and ingenuity, to increase by husbandry the beauty and fruitfulness of the place, until it became equal to the perfection of his own imagination. For although there was nothing imperfect in Nature before the Curse, yet all the imaginable perfections, which the seminal properties of the Birth contained, were not actually existent at the first instant, but the responsibility of Adam.and all succeeding men to bring to fruition'. John Fletcher Reading C. Hill. The World Turned Upside Down. Pelican. . F. Yates. Gioradano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. R.K.P. 1964. F. Yates. Theatre of the World. R.K;P. 1969. Samuel Hartlib and the Advancement of Learning. ed C. Webster. C.U.P. 1970. W.H.G. Armytage. Heaven. B610w. . Utopian Experiments in England. 1560-1960. R.K.P. 1961. *details to foIlow in Undercurrents 18 [finally published in the Index of the first 10 years].


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• • • • • • • • • • • • As a result of wh.t might be politely called. series of .ccidents the preceding .rticle turned out. bit shorter th.n expected. In particul.r the pictures of the beehive which we were confidently expecting from the British Museum just didn't .rrlve ...... nd still havm't arrived. So we're pleased, (not to mention relieved), to bring the following item foward from Undercurrents 18 in order to fill the breach. In marked contr.st, perhaps, to some'of the other features in this issue, self·sufficiency guru John Seymour .ssures us th.t

There are no fairies at the bottom of MY garden I wish there were, but there aren't. There are foxes, alas, and badgers, and mink, (escaped from captivity to proliferate in the streams,·nd pinch my chickens·J but there are no fairies. I am quite sure about this·if there were I would know there ·were. Of course I can imagine fairies, and have them buzzing about in my head, but no matter how long I live, I am sure that I will never see one·because there oren '( any. _ I know that by saying this I will deeply offend a lot of people, and why offend people because they have beliefs that I consider to be unsound beliefs? Surely it is better to leave us all with our illusions. But I think it is nec",sary to say it because the organic mOVement (to . which i like to feel I belong) is constantly discredited by adherents who believe, or sa·y they believe;in 'plant devas', and talking to the plants, and telling the rats and other naughty things to go away (if they did go away they would only go and do damage to someone else), and planting according to the phases of the Moon, and sprinkling magical substances about the field .. I know. man who stuffs certain herbs in the stomach of a wild stag, buries it for the winter, and then sprinkl", the resultint putrescent rubbish about his fields·a teaspoonful to an acre I There is no evjde·to show that any of these methods and devices have·slightest effect, nor Is it likely that there ever will be any. In fact the effects may be deleterious: if you limit yooulantlng .'.to certain phases of the Moon·y . well miss wh.t really matters··ttIe right . time to plant. If you plant seed in the .. righHind of soil, which has been treated correctly, has enough warmth and enougn moisture and not too much, the seed will germinate and the plants will grow. You can talk to the Devas unti.1 you are blue in the face and it willnot·make the siightest difference to your _d or to anything else. If mice come and eat your seed that will be that If you get rid of the mice they wonlt eat your seed. We crave magic in this unmagical age we live in. All the cOmforting old beliefs·the surety that when we die we don't really die, for example, the feeling that a . Beneficient Being watches our every individual move and cares for us and looks after us·these beliefs have failed us miserably. Some people are able to substitute for these reassuring creeds a materialism that is so gross and all·. pervading that it allows no time to worry about


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what hippens to us when we die. As a mother sticks a dummy into a baby's mouth to stop it howling, or a high·powered plastic motor·boat, into the hands of its sons and these things stop them worrying too. All these things are dummies·like baby's dummies·and they have the same reassuring and quietening effect. Unfortunately, though, some babies find out·they discover that they can'treolly get any milk out of the dummy·it is only a dummy after all and so they spit it out and howl again. And that's what happens to some of us grown·ups too. New Religion? And so the restless search for a new Magic, a new Mysticism, a new Religion is what we a,e really after. And we cling _ to any magical sto:aw that drifts our way·belief that the position of the stars at the time of our birth (what if we are born a few weeks prematurely? Eh?) • affects our characters, belief that a waxing Moon pulls plants)Jpwords while a waning one pulls them aOWR)Nards (if the MOOn pµl\supwards when it is our side of·the EarJh what when it goes the other side, as lfdoes every twelve hours, eh? ).·. .. A man has jUst written a boo·saying thatthe·trees o(me Old W¢ld caused Man, by mystical means, to build boats (of trees) and sail across the Atlantic; so that the trees in the boats could talk to the trees in America, and bring news of them back to the trees4n the Old World. I was on a radio programme once with a man who claimed that he put lie detectors on plants and the plants showed a reaction eveWtime he (the man) had an orgasm. The lie detector should ha\'e been put 01) the man, not on the plants, for it was quite evident who was telling the lies. An hour's conversation with him showed him up to be a complete charlatan, and yet hundreds of thousand, Of people round about the world believe every word he says. Thus pseudo·science of the ,illiest sort takes the place of vanished religion,. and ear_t seekers after truth are misled and the Organic Movement, which could, and must. save the world is discredited among intelligent people. i . This Universe is infinitely splendid, infinitely fascinating, infinitely mysterious·"as it is. We just don't need to invent a lot of mystical ru"bbish to make it fascinating.]u'tlook at it as it really is·what 'magic' could be more marvellous .than the actual, completely unmagical, life of plants? Take a bucketful of ordinary soil and a hundred different plants will extract material frem that simple powderysubstam:e to create a thousand subtle chemicals·a myriad shades of subtle colours·chemical substances that can cure us, can kill us, an infinity of different tastes and aromas, an infinity of shapes. There are people in Scotland who claim they can make fi·plants grow in . sand by talking to them. Now I made fine plants grow in sand in Suffolk no.t by talking to them (although I can't claim I didn'uweor at a few of them from time to time) but by giving them all·the things that they needed. What were those? Humus, plant nutrients,·moisture, freedom from


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competition from other plants, good cultivation. Sound organic metho·s of husbandry in fact. Sand is a marvellous soil for growing plants in·if you bang plenty of good muck into it. You ca'n tUm.it'·into a rich, early, welldrained but moisture·retaining, fertile soil. Those P<?PI·in Scotland have done just this; the fatlthat they talk, or don't talk, to the plants or the devas has nothing to dltwith the m.tter at aJl. To claim that it """'s merely obscures the issue, fogs the truth, makes real truth . more difficult to get at. Maybe one day a new religion will arise in which we 'enlightened' people of the new world mal' believe in. Maybe it won't. Maybe each. one of us has got to develop his or her own religion, or religious feelings, or set of beliefs, and thus·satisfy for themselv", these natural . cravings of our kind. What is religion but a sense of owe?' Is there riot enough around us in the real and actual Universe·the Universe our five senses tell us about·to provide is with a sense of awe? can there be anything more awe·inspiring than the thought of our Sun, millions of times greaW than our (to us) enorm, E.arth, with unimaginable pressures al heats and turbulence inside its belly 1 yet sending us its gentle rays to 'freck the kids' noses, fix energy in plants, I the water 'to run my watermill, alld P heat the bath water in Brad's 501,···Can there be anything more a' inspiring than the production of fantastically complicated long·ch_ ... organic compounds.bY simple little pia out of a handful of inert earth, the number of bacilli in a teaspoonful of" the infinitelv ,ubtle interrelationshiDs between the. plants and animals i wood? Can there be anything more : awe·inspiring in the fact that human beings have evolved from a virus and nave the power of liusbanding this E, for the benefit of all on it·and power, also, of destroying it and themselves ? We have grown out of in irrational emotionally·satisfying) system of religious and superstitious beliefs. For God's sake (I'm entitled to postulate 1·ity if I want to! ) don't let us·ink ._ .. .1.. £ _.·_L. __ 'and Tarot cards, and plant devas, and Moon pulling plants upwards or downwards, and' plants talking to eacl other across the Atlantic and having a convulsion every time their owner hac orgasm. Let us" trust the evidence of 0' senses, and go on from that to deYelo·real reverence and sympathy for all living·yes, and non·living, things. Everything is holy·everything is significant·everything is part of Goc Region·l Network New THE' UC NETWORK of correspo.ndents, newsho.unds and local organisers is progressing well. We now have thirty six correspond,", scattered throughout the country. The only areas not covered as yet are mainly (strangely) in the West Country·Bristol, Somers Dorset, Salop, Herefordshire and in Wales·Gwynedd, Clwyd, Dyled. We also need someone in Liverpool and Oxford. Also. Wilts Hants, Middx. News is trickling in slowly "·and we're hoping to. integrate it in either with


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Eddies or with the new :'n The Making' feature, whic the ITM team, and the new group in Milton Keynes that is hopefully to take en ITM news gathering, will produce. ITM, by the way, will continue a·an ann.ual compilation of the 'supplements' published in Undercurrents. SENSE (Skills Exchange Network for a Stable Economy) has sent us a useful list of twenty five Contacts for help/advice on Construction/Engineering, Dry St(>ne Walling/Hedge Laying, 'Electrical, Gardening/Horticulture, Glassblo.wing. Contact SENSE, c/o John Porter, 18 The Forum, C/lidham'Park, Havant, HANTS P09 1 DR for further details. London still lacks an 'AT' centre·although you can always try to contact the UC,group at Earth Exchange (213 Archway Road, N6) track down the Street Farmers (21 Flodden Rd. SES) or write to the Rational Techno.logy Unit at the AA (Bedford Square, WC1). You might also contact FoE (9 Poland St., Wl) and SERA (Sociaiist Environment and Resources Association)·contact Tonv Emerso .... ':1.' 'l n."."nn",hi ... DA CK:'l':l: fr>r C 1="' • ........... .. .' '.·Regional Network·lic;t of c:ont';ll:t·. How ",hout cont.:u:tinl!' vOllr n·Ar·t corr·nondent or volunteerinp to he one vourl:;f·l Network co·ordinCl.: ..... Dave Elliott 39 Holland Park, I nndon Wl1 4t11 NORTHWEST Nigel Fergusen BrentwOOd End Cottage Low Bentham Nr Lancaster Tim Lang Simfield 81'1d Ral'T'l$Clough Farms Slaidburn Clitheroe Lanes. Dave Hicks Heugh F·d Flat Grasmere Cumbria NORTHEAST David Hart 69 Ellerker Rise Willerby Homberside Monica Fri$Ch 7 Blayney Row Newburn Neweastle·upon·Tyne NE15SQo Geoff Watson . clo UC Network New Age AccelS PO Box No.4 Hexham Northumberland SCOTLAND GPea5e B1airhill RulTlbling Bridge Kinross Robert Marks 80 Moss·eights Avenue Glasgow G522TY Mkhael Tribbeck 10 Cannon Lane Edinburgh E 1 0 IRELAND Brian Hurley Low Energy Systems 3 Larkfield Gardens Dublin 6 Eire Mike Tomlinson clo Dept. of Social Studies The Queen's University of Q.etfest Belfast BT11 NN Northern Ireland MIDLANDS People's Centre 768 Bristol Avenue Selly 0_. Birmingham


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Eric Sargent 33 Breedon Street Long Eaton Nottingham NG10 4ES East Midlands AT GrOup lEMAT) clo Jan Bang Grange Farm College Oxten Notts. Eric Swift 21 Robert Street Heaton Par.k Prestwich Manchester M25 5HG David Emerson c/o O1eshire Community Council Watergate House . 85 Watergate Street Chester CHl 2lW Ken Hardv 30 Stanley Street Lincoln Roger Tavlor 43 Semilong Road . Non_ton SOUTHWEST Joe ean·Oell LucBStes L.erryn Lostwithiel Cornwall Guv Oauncey Hofne Cross Cottage Ashburton ... Dovon Godfrey Boyle 1·Shadwell Uley Near Durslev Giol. WALES H·rbie Girardet Forest Cottage Treleck Road TIntem Near Chepstow .Gwent Paul Downton 205 Arabella Street Roath Cardiff Bob Todd National Centre for Alternative Technology Llwyngwern Quarry Machynlleth Powys 'THE SOUTH' Martin Beale Rise Holding Lowes Sussex eN7 3PR Kip Handl jog Signaf Cottage' 81ed1ow IlUc4u Ken Smith Staple Farmhouse . Staple Canterbury Kent ACORN 84 ClUTCh Street Wolverton Mil ton Key ne! Rex Hora 15 Downham Court Shlnfield Road Reading RG2 8HP EAST Jan WysOcki Hans Cottage Back Road Kirton Ipswich Richard Peck 309 Willowfield Tower Harlow Wex CM! B 6SD Mrt A C Zeiter 16 Alfred Road Cromer Norfolk NORTH Robin Fielder 221 Albtlrt Road Sheffield sa 9QY Leeds Future Studies Centre 15 Kelso Road Leeds 2 Mark Teverson Thornhill Farm Stearsby NT Brandsby Yorks. Andy Macdonald 69 BishOpthorpe Road • YOI"k.


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Graves DowsingAJmost anyone can dowse, reckons "Tom Graves author of Dowsing: Techniques and Applications, it's a matter of attitude and training. Tom wants to remove from dowsing its curious country quirk image - dowsing and its investigation could be a great paradigm smasher . .Do ..... Is one of those aspects of the 50coiled 'fringe sclenca' that has direct and pncSic:aIuses in everyday problems despite its beilll somewhat temperament·31 and unreliable.Wator·dlVinilll is perlups its best known form,but the rang,. of the . apprK:aCionis of dowsing is enormous: it's mOs1Iy u$Cd to 1Xkl. probl&ms that_ ' beyorld .... MDp&of mor& <:orwmtienal physlcaIly.ba5ed tools; . .. To give an example, a common problem in building and rebuilding is to tocal2 the old cables, drains and other seNice·, Metal·detectors are often tHed for this; .but they're a lot·more difficult to use than one is led to believe, and th&y're iimited both in ra"ie and in what th&y can find. A cheap !'lagnetic metal·detector (about (10) will have trouble finding aRything other Iban ferromag' netic materials a few inches below the surface; an' expensive sonar·or radar·type detector (more like (100) can detectanv metal and soone other types of 'discontinuity', down to (at best) abOUt five feet belliw the sUrface. Neither type is capable of discriminating easily between one substance and another. And beyond . these limitations, if you have to use con;. ventional tools, instruments get expensive·thousands of pounds, or more. Anyone can do it But with a littie practice·no,more·than is needed to learn how to use a metal·detector aCcurately'·you can use a pair o(bent coat hangers or welding rods (costing ten pence) to locate the services of any practical depth,with pr·cise·discrimination between the·services, and rega1'dless of·..iIat materials th&y're made of. Which sounds ridiculous, I know, but the point is that it works·and also that, despite the traditional assumptions about dOwsing, almoSt anyone can.le·rn to do it In practice, getting reliable results . from dowsing is about as difficalt as learning to ride a pushbik·'·and in fact m'any of the learning problems are the same in both skills.. The approaches that allow us to move·away.fromthe old assumption that 'only gifted people can do it' are multi·leve{·a mixture of physical, mental and other factors·rather than the old physicalistic' or pseudo·physical approaches. Whlle these new approaches' make oUr ideas about how dowsing works even more vague than they were before, th&y also make it simpler and easier to use·for they tell us in some considerable de·1 ·abOut 00 ... ite.. l» f/IIOI'ked, the conditions under which it willM'ctk.'And that; from a prilC,tkal point otview,·a Veit·d8aJmore li"Sefulthan sOme inadequate lexpWuti··. .·.. '


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The range·of applicatiol18 Using a range of techniques you can, for instance, measure the depth of a pipe, its course and junctions, the mater·ial of·..iIich it is made, the location of any leaks or breaks, the quality and amount ofWOltedlowing through it; and so on·all before digging dow'r). The dowser's instNment·coat·hangers, hazel fork, pendulum or.whatever·,is used as a 'Ves/No 'device·'a qualitativ·and quantitative Ves/No devite some·\\'hat analogous to a conventional moving·coil meter. The instrument is a simple mechanical amplifier, amplifyingsmall hand·movements in much the same way that. meter needle visually amplifies a small current; and, Just.as a mete. can'measure many different qualities by placing suitable electrical or electronic conditions 'in front'of it, so too the dowser can select·..iIat his ·instrument;will react'to or measure by placing suitable conditions 'in front of the inStrument'sreaction. Dowsing is partly physical, partly mental, partly someU.ingeise·it's a. mult·level toot The instrument moves because your.hands move; your hands move·ause a nerve drives 'a. muscle; and the nervous impulse is triggered by the response of some reflex to some stimulus. 'That much can be proved but the reflexes involved can be either ·the simple type like the knee and blink reflexes, or else the·ry'unsimple 'mental reflexes (CO(Iditionedreflexes ( and the'like); and it's almost impossible to state, with any degree of certainty, which reflex is operating at anyone time. So the mind can place conditions 'in front of the reaction, selecting what the instrumeill will react to li,ke the 'seJector'knob on an' AVO·meter. It can also intrude, through prejudice and preconceptions, doubt and·If·questioning·the attitude of mind is critical (in·bothsen ... ) in dowsing, so ardent materialists please note! It's also possible to usedjrtlCtBd imB(Jination·a dowser tan mentatly 19o to' .1. place, or a time, at will, and collect information frpm there·hence the rather bizarre tech, niques of··do"'ng and the like, wII·a map is used to symbolise the teq·ired place"for the imagiri.tion to·go'to.t. Symbolisln of this kind·'symbolic equivalence'·is used in many dowsing techniques.. The mon common rorm of this i,the use of 'samples',il,ample of the same material as the object I'ou·re . looking for, as a qualitative condition 'in front of the re""tion. (Traditionally, this is closely related to 'sympathetic magic'). There may also be some kind of physical or semi·physical 'resonance' involved in the use of these 'samples'. but I'm none too happy about that·I prefer to "ex.plain' it in terms of a lmental world', in which, by definition, the physically. 'real', the symbolic, the archetypal and the imaginary are all equally 'real', Dowsing thus becomes both a mixture of analysis and intuition, and a bridge between them; dowsing is . a way of using intutionanalyticolly in praCtice. . Dowsing is a tool


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But beware·dowsing is not some kind·of mystical or magical panacea, it's ·just a tool. The further away from the 'objective' physical reality, the more subjective the techniques necessarily become·and thus the greater subfective control needed to obtain reliable results. II's all too easy to get 'results' from the wrong imaginary world! . The main advantages of dowsing (especially the modem 'multi·level' systems) are cheapness, flexibility and ·simplicity of the techniques and toolsalmOst all iypes of dowsing tools can be 'knocked up' in a matter of minutes;' from things lying around in the home . ' ; . Or workshop. Its main disadvantage is ' i its somewhat erratic reliability·but note that lfIe reliability, as I've already implied, depends far more on the operator than the instrumellL It is a ·skill, and like alf other skills it requires a little practice and awareness, and a ·working knowledge of its basic principles and mechanics, in order to get useful results. . My own interest in dowsing is in its .... in 'fringe archaeology'·ley systems, earJb·acupuncture and the like·but that's ",ther outside the scope of this article: Tashow more mundane,and clearly·practical use af it, the follawing three pall'l' give .directions and suggestions 011 using dowsing to' find a water pipe or drain.. . ·Reliability and control ., .... , Olie of 1M nicst imporbnt things to C " realisubout dowsing is that it is highly .... subjUtive: so the reliability of any dow··sing _rk wilt depend more on the '·operator thom anyone or anything else. The'iristiument'only tells. the dowser what his hands are doing·all the actual work ' ·is done subconsciously, Somewhere inside " him or her. The whole process is amix·. Ulre ofaftalysis and intulti"",; in using it ·you're playing with coincidences, trying to get 1M reaction of the inStrumentto coincide with !fie place of whatever it is you're looking for, or trying to get the imaginary world of y ...... 'sample' to c<> incide with 1M real one. Subjective con·ditions have to be taken into account as much'as 'objective' ones before reliable and repeatable results can be obtained. So there are quite a range of things . • to watchout for if you don'tseem to be having any suq;ess. There are few physical fHoblems, bu t most of these afe fairly obvious: by far the most common mistake is·oIdiAg the rod in such a way that It can't move ,freely, or even move at alt O1eck that one first! Then for some people there's a problem·f weather·for some reason certain weather. conditiOfts don't 'agr·eJ ·with them. If you can, always repeat any ,'dowsil!B worl< at different times of day, ·arid avoid difficult'workin weather con·. ditions in whic·.you feel uncomfortable. 'This is because you may find it difficult ·then to relax, which, as I'll explain ·shortly, is important that you are able to do. Incidentally, it should still be ·possible for you to find on underground water.·pipe or stream even when it's' . ·pouring with' rain: you shOuld, with practice, be able to


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discriminate p,ec;.e·Iy between objects, and to find only that ·which you're looking for. ,By far the most difficult problem for most people to understand is that the mind has a: critical effect (in both senses of the word) on the reliability of the ·results. The catch is that a negative' approach;.... 'it can't work, of course', or 'I suppose it'll never work for me'·or ·equally an averly .positive approach·'it·must work for me', or 'trying' or·con··centrating' will usually interfere with or neatly jam up the whole process. Dowsing seems to operate through a rfIC/lPtiWl state of mind, while conventional'scien··tWc' thinking operates through an active e • state: so don't try to analyse what is happening (or not happening), don't be pessimistic, and don't try too hard. Just .. let it work itself. The key word here is 'rest': IWtyour mind on what you·re , doingdust be a little patient; if you adopt a quiet confidence and just allow the instrument to Work itself 'through you', the·whole thing becQmes much easier, and more reliable. The more you interfere in the process, the less reliable it becomes. . Developing the skill Dowsing is a skill, and as with any skill you have to practice until the JIlOYements and actions of the inil{1UaI . part of the skill (in thisc ... , holding and usi", the rod or whati:ver) become aut<> matic;become' a sequ""ce "f.refh;x ac·. tions and reactions. Once it knOws what to do, the body c<ir! II"t on wit/\ the job . 'l\I·ly and efficien·y·" but only as 1000g as the mil\ddoesn'tconfuse it with . contradictory orders. It's rather lib ridi", a pushbike: in order to ride it you must balance. a number of ppp·osiilg. forces wltl10ut realty knowing haw you do it·aild as soon as yOu start to think or worry about it, you fall off! The same appiie. s in dowsing.':And llie same kind {)f direction of action as oil a piJshbike is used tq select how the dawsing instrument wilt react: on a pulhbike you think about whereyou want to go ",ther than deliberately steering the ., thing, and in dowsingyou·edirect your eonsciounttentiOn 01\ to ttle effect: . CiIi'i;'lehdlod effeet}af·a Jivennrllex ,: _ment, so""tO·lat;tIie body produce,' unconsci·sIY/theright"·se'·" the right reflex orsequence of reflexes. . The simplest way of doing this, if you . woo't feel too embarrassed, is to 'talk' tp'the instrument, as if it were a slightly cantan.kerous child·for that's effectively the relatiooship betwe .... the two aspects of yourself. Note also that any conscious, semiconscious or unconscious prejudices and assumptions can, and often will, • interfere with the·results In the same way as abOYe. The first level of this is . jumping to conclusions·this will ' tend to give you the result (or no"; . result) that you expect to II"t·and control of this is just a matter of self··observation. Ii needs practiCe, but it's not particularly. diffICUlt. . . Wha·Is difficult is. the control of .. unconsciOus prejudices·they're difficult to control simply because they


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MW u"nconscious., These are so deep·seated even in those·o are honestly trying to be open'minded (let alone those who think they can be 'objective' about the whole business) that reliable resultsespecially in the more controversial areas such as map·and time·dowsingcan be hard to corne by. In theory the only way of handling this problem is to fsoI.", tI» aaJf .. titely from. the, process, with the sole exception of .that part of the self that is applyilli whalever conscious directiQns.and controls are needed. Only When you' are 'at one 'wiih the object' can you . trulY be 'objective', . . This is a·eoretical idea, of course, but in practice and wilh experience you should be able to corne pretty close to' it. The most practical wayof·' . doi!ll this is some form of meditatiOfl'. (in the open senSe of the word), Some" form of reflectian on yourself and the work being done. Try resting YOUf mind on three poims: ",,'the balance . of the instJ:Ument; on Where you·c;:J·. and on the problem·at·hand, the particular part of the technique that . you're using at that time; Set up that··_ 4tripod' in your mind; meditate on . it, and its changes; and set it so. that the instrument reacts at the point required by. the problem·at·hand. That's one way·there are plenty of i::ourse, so try out various ways in·, practice, and use whatever seems to ' suit you. Use whatever works, what·. ever gives you the results you need. Try it and test it in practice: for it only makes sense in practice. Don't try to be 'scientific' about dowsing - it. will only make it Impossible for you to do it. So don't stay sitting on your backside, pontificating on whether it can work, or how it can work - get up and do it for yourself! Tom GravesAdapted from Dowsing: Techniques and Applications, by Tom Graves; published by Turnstone Press, June 1976; price £1.75 paperback, £3.25 hardback. It is reviewed elsewhere in this issue by Richard Elen.


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Letters uncorrected

CORNISH POWER We an·'to conud aIlJ'OD' who baa the nee·kDowleclll! aDd eQM'Z'tbe 10 draw up • compnh4;l1J:1ve repot1 on lbe·Praeticali:Q' of aupply!q; the pow8l'·ae«l. of • Conddl lnd.u.tri&1/Reddeatla1 Coa.urbatton of 40000 POP. from Unked. Sun(Wtnd/Waterpowu rYat.emI OD 200 1Q,\dN mDe. ot Deilhbourinl inoorl.aD4 and ''t&I1iW an ... ' Our Ioea1 kno_leciJ:, of 'power polnia" would be ..... pUed. Food. &Ad accom.modation could be uraDI.s. but no ... , U thia is • prlyau lDlUaU.,. whicb we do not wlab to fall mIG the hat1dJ of more wWtD.Y ...... OJ1l4l! bodies·who miIM k .. p the data for their own Dlnnl .. lIbh or exclusive u.ea. . Tbenta_ elo :rha Eu1;b Cenva '8·beraacle SUeet TKuro, Corawan Tel: POWey (eons_aU) 221 CB May I u a reluJu Undereurrenh reader and licensed radio amateur correct a fe. point. 111 alchard Elen', otherwi8e very lnfonnative artiel_ Db 1.be Ci1llun Band in UCt6? Ftrstl)' &he auerUon &hat CS would provide'the be.t of both amateur and industrial communiea·Uon la plainly lDaeeuRte. Amateur radio exi8t8 (.mone other thLnaa) for teIl·trainiAc in the \1M' of rtIdio. tm senulne re.earch a.Dd for foal.to' inI: int.emaUonalloodwW.. CB demands little in th·•• y of operatinQ: sldBs. provlc1 .. no Opport\mttiN for exteDdin& the frontiers 0' knowledae O.e. proPQ&tton research. earth/moonl earth and,·aaU1Ute commwUcatloM eic).1'10% is U deaii:De4 for ioN: d1IU.Dea comm\Ulie.etlcm. CB ... not therefore. IUbltitu.ie for amateur DCUo, aDd. wouJd. proyld.e fm an eatireb' different 1l8ed.. Resard1DI CS u. mtwWuU for d1e belt In lDc:lundal oommwdea·&ion, allt C.D: laY ill that I would not be P&d1culU'lY happy at ihethoucht of my life beiDI ill the baDdt ef .• doctor tryl.nl to eontact. em.e:rceDCY .ervlcM via • medium Uke CB. Nor would I·y W&D.t • PQ'chatriR &.0 dYcua mT cue in the public foruml People who I'aJbr Deed. reliable eDd. 1Q0re·o·private com.mumcaUoDl eham2e1s would be betwr .ctvIIed to UN thoee that alrMd, ex1R. So may t mike UM lUuestion that aDY P'O'IP' Vriaa to pwh'CB open.iionla.lb.e UK. concentrate on what It'.·y .bout. ie the more penoaal form. of communication. ]I RJcb.ard £len mu.! dra .. co·pariM)nt between CB.JZU1 amateur raclio. then maT·] eotlaadlct. hit aaertion that the Radio Amateun' Eumination is diffieult. Tbia is neither the intedUon of the Home ot1!ce Dor the e:r::perience of aD, .erlow mthwiut. U. t.1ntended. (Uke the dI'MDa teal) to deter ODly thOM who would by theJr incompetence be • daniel: Ot annoyance to others. (And I .om ... time. 1AHpect. it doem't alway_ • wen .chleve that!) ,An., person of normal tntdll,ence can learn aD that is nec::ellU7 in • frw weeks by


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stu,dyinc: an e:r::cellea.t UUle book published by the Radio Society 'of Great Britain. And in any case Altnna.Uve TechnolOlY enthusiutl should be alMod of cu.rrenl know·ledle not heblnd itt Th. claim that amat.un have to maintain their own equipment is am·Y DOt true. The nearest approach to CB on Ule amateur baDcb:" the UMI of P'M tra.ncel"on 2m·and tbeae are reedUy ob&aibed and aervlced.. The abW.ty to·equipment 11 a aJd1l far abo" &.be mlDimum·to paa the RAE. AA to BleD" pro·tbd CB tbou14l111p1aee 1IlO6el cOQVol Od 27 MH1. thla is an eztreme)y tncoMiderate v.lew that lqt.aUy nealecta tbe eolHlderable 1D ... meat alr·.d., ednlDI. Surely a new rnedJum should 10m tbe Queue for available beQ.UDelel Thia .. well .. beiDI fair .oule provide BritUh 1Dd.\Yk7 with the chance to dnelop a beW·ouUet·free from oIapa.oeae compeUtlon.. (1ncldeDtally. froD;l a purely technical·point of vie .. Uaere are frequenclq far better suited to CB than·27 MHz.) Fmally. if Elelll wou.1d care to lilteD. to the UDlleeued pirat •• aIr_eb openUna ilia VB, he would ihiak twtce beCore WaDtln.lI to ioin in this t:rivlal .. put·.·WbJiP; (unlike many lIcenaed amateun) I'm In no ""T oppoaed to the pr1nc:iple of radio for au. I.m concerned. to avoid w..una valuable w.velenathl for actMtlet that in my experlen.ce are lC&I'CelJ' worthwhile co·mwrlcaUon. A better undft'It.an.dlD.l of radio mug surely be in the lDtereltl of tfrv.Tone. JohD Wlboa (GIKlllil 2& Qu.aaeDdon Rd .· Buclta HP7 9EF '1'bank ,.ou for 'lour uUcle 'CU1zena' B&n.d Why is U BaD.ned·in Ua.dercurrentl 16. J leuDt ..... t ctea1.from it.Dd amvet"Y _ 101Mlnll_. WbilA Dot wUhall Tom point. ( J do not qrH tbat Import cODWla abould be 1M1D. &amed. to ...... t.he UK Nectron1cl iDdu..trJ' & chaaee·protecUon bas a nut l' habit of lOme. Olio for ever) I do 'IfiIh to live .,. whole beute4 support to',·ow: bu:ic pro·n. namel,. lhat thee Iho·be .. t·ctilUIUI·Baa4 lD thla OOUDVy. I ba .. beU un. view for maa7 ,.MII ani! ban floated It lD. wrio1u Qvanen. Th. main obJtlCtiqu aeem to be that the Aau:rtcan exp·unce hal bMD cliautroua and ilecody lhat there Ss lnM.Ltf1clent IP&ee anJlahle. Nne!' haYinI been in Amalea.. I don't kDOW what lhe Ameriean experienee has been.. You write "It .. onl,. fair to pOlnt out that the CD IIituation in lbe St.at.u baa become MHnewbat chaotic in lOme place •• " I &Wl .. that .. bat you. .r.pean ill that in lOme placee there are too many statioDl on the l&tQe chann.el and. that they are ia1llJXliQl: each other. If ,·ou·nothinl wone tban th1a. the ditfieult;y Can be ove:J'come by reflricttnI transmitUni poWer. which is euy enouah to do almPh by only permittinl: the sale of units WhOM power is not .eu:D.J' inc:reued. M,. own. expertmenu sua_ thallOO MW tnnsceben are UmJted in ranle to about I}J mn. at the mo.t, wbatever the • manufaeturen may claim. Tb.eJe.·fore th6 problem of Jamminl o·t DOt to be l8Vtte. Iri. the country there wiD be fewer unita aDyway, .berou in urbaau .... there may be more unlta but the pr·..ce of bu1141.D&a. .,peciaDY mo4em l&eel+tram.s bu.DdJ,.Dp. wtll "d.\lOI!


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Uw r&DCe cODllderabb. '1'beee 0 "·u.o apply to tile MeO.t obleado ... namelJt Insuffie1ent _08. ModekonRoI wdta ban Iu.ch a very·ra.nJe tbat in1.erl.·nee .. unI1kely and &117" .... ,. the chanDe1I .&0 .bScJ TOU Hfer U'& 'DOt u.eed. for all""; tbiD.I eWe. The old. cllnt.Dut abow·Ie ta.tedereaoe to emerteac llllnice. iI; abo in·\he ame ea&ecor,.··1lda b&D4 _ amply DO uaed for such·. I haw a SW receiver wh1eh can covel' tbe 27, m.bz bmd. and ] haw li8tened In vain lor. aIIna1 of any dacriPUon: in other wordl it it ,an '.mpty band'. It oeeun to me that marlY people mVlf'po_ equipment which woul4 operate on &hlJI baDe Whenl wrote to the Home Offtee &0 enquire about ita·I received • Y8I"'/·....a. kUer _YlDa that llc8nll.nc ... Impoalble becaU8e of emeq:eQCY·.. and that there bact been Mmaay propeuUo'" of pirate operaton. I flnd this hard to b.uev. b.caUd low po .... &AdJa·nt .0bOe u&e would make d.e&ecUon • bud task. He .. you __ ., iDdJeaUoD the lbe band. La. In fut. unel in the m< (an.. .. _.)1 ] would Uke to b.·...odI.ted with a campaJp for • clUHnI' oancl. and wou1ci be iliad to kDow how I ean help. Tbe p_tNt dill'I' culty '·that m Lew people aH Intere.ced. TIl .... t.1II' ncUo world. sbcnIId be AD. aDy but .... ". PerbaPi the I AltermU .. SocietT' mU8t take the lDhiatln wlt·.•·.• 1e&4iDI .... field. 8_"" enouch. we milbt .et IlO11l1 .JlDili.ed fllPport from manu· . taeturen uut/or I..m,perten .. ho want 10 tIIII 'their war ... lohn '1'. Raiu: 48 Weltbawen erL··.. AUlhton 0rmIIdrlt ··LB85n A·WINnerA.,F rnMMF:N1 We'thoUlbt thI1 .. Well"'COD \aCtina P0Jaa4 Street directly. we'ellet yo,", bow what we thouaht of the FOE D'Ucku demotraDy at W1ndJrcale. There w .. UtUe CODRlltatlOD with localarouP' over the . decidon t.o run _ 'lIIucJear elleurdon' train; our 11'0uP used a minibua, at we eoulclD't afford. .!!. + travel to the nearest stattOJ:l en route. There wu enthudum, both &moq \U and other FOE ll'ouPa. for the propOMd oecup" 110n of Tome .. power natton site In Scotland. OD ,..b1c:h work wW bectn thia 1'UlDI11el'; howeva'. central FOE deelded. that there wu too llUie pr_ value in IYlD& in front of buU.dozen. Even direct aCtion at the WmdKale m.e .u Judaed to be 'C()u.nluproduetl·'. a;) aD that the preaa .... were '00 or eo bored and cold demonsb'a .. ton llGenlDI to a su.ccell1on of U!iliaplnd ,puken. l.a.cltof local tePt ... ntation w .. anoUUrr ae:riO\ll. point; apart from &be u.ady committed Hall·Wen uc1 the UAlon .man.. we had. 1it1J. relPO_ fro .. the local people. Tbb Yital pobd wben FOE Ibol&ld ba tome nal etfort. Tbe z:a1b" dWS 1 __ 6ID TROTS First 1.t me ... ,. IMt I IDle the wide raqe of ut1c1M aDd pr:aetkl auaeR10u on AT u..t Vndecurnutl D01'IIWlJ' con&a1DL What I dOD.tt Uke 10 much 1& the elltkt toDe tMt er"pa lD.to eo ... of thoae adiclea. I ref. puUcuIarlY to ToD}' )tJDNlOD.'. piece OD·"The PolWce of Production for Neecl'. 1lIr. Emenon 1Ift"U.·. in &Jl olMi wiae &ood Ude1A, "Of


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ClOU," 'the lIlet1tutioD&lla8d bureeue:ra1ia of eMU' movement are not showiDa·1Jt. Nettbel' an the docmaUA aect.arianl·the "rn'Ol\IUoDP'f' vaa&uard' puUee. aa1lNal. aH Del in the 'ft1I. But aalde from. thoee who .. 1IlIDdI have been Irreverdbly c10aecl by tnhrlnI. b1 adhennce to·e lI.be', there aM enormou. Dumb" wbo ... &he po'··DtlaJ of LucM·lype ctrre1opmeata ...... Now it. .. esDI to me that a more aectarl&D ... temeat would be bald to find. To leDe:ralI.te .. Em·D 40. about rnoluUoaalel "a.dherl..DI to the line' aDd IporlDJ AT aboWl .laek of u.nd.entaDdlDa about the llituationsln wh14!:h 'fu lett·Iroupa tla.d therMeb'. and • lack of lmowledae abo"t iIueb poupa and their memben. Pnnmabb' h. dec:rlea both bureeuonta aDd revoluUoDUJ" ao·in order to put forward 8m .. U.e·. alternatln.. M • melD_ of the lIltero natloD.a1 SoctaJiata (wbleb In fad Mme to be a ,""a put,. nih .. thAD & Y&.DI\&G'd. ahhoQb 1 .u. ped Yr. Bm·rl.·oWd e1uIIh it lD the laUer oa&··.oQ' • any cue) I objHt to the tra.plicaUoa. that •• lpore AT conceptL I at least am iDterefte4 and 10 are other IS membP'S that I ban di. cu.e4 the·matiC witb. Don" coadtma. ua IImPlT becawe we . ba,w nat take1l an aeu..· G4I 0 VOuP. DOI' ...... we an men)y raformla& becauM .e can for the BJ&b& to Work nth_ therl CMdfleaDY for the 1UIb' to Work 011 SocWI1y V_hal Pzoduct·.CoIDpared to the bulk of the Labour Movement we are .uu VflC)' thia 01 the pound. altho·.h our lnfIueaee • IrDwinI aDd ill now liaDltlcant in m&JlY·beca ... we .... ClCtf·.octallAs Oe. 'rnWtanu' aDd "elrtNmIata" .. the pre:. would. ba,w it). How on earth can you e:r::pect ua to tmo our w.tcht cu: on o,",ontaGtJon bebtDd SBRA when we an __ ouch_ problaltM" fi&hUAI nd\lDcland ... ft&hUq the euU. 4!:UDP&i&niD.II for·democn.tic wHon ftr\lCture .. for health and ufety .t work and home, md·to expo .. to work .. the PD8ral hJ'pocz:in ad w"e of our preaem .,..Ilem of pr0duction? You won't make • revolution wiihou' revot·UoDArl. and :JDU won"t make revoluUonarlM without educat.ton and. an idea of 'what could. be'. The Lu.eu lnIUatin aD.4 the Auaralian Greea. DaDa ue neeDeat and Iolkal dne10pmenta of the bulc dab' to work. but for any AT eGihQdast.a. perhaPJ unhUtiated ta. the IINbbler work·In&a of capUallsm and the leaaths to ... ldeb the nillD& claaeee wID 10 to ma1D.\a1n their h .. emoay. to expecl our rulen to b1:Wlab' roD on tbelr becb.beD. • few cfou.pa of work.·. demaAd to wade OD ___·11·. £ I) .,. the leuL manJ' enmoDIDentalisb and AT'en don·' realtle wbat Is Ukeb to MPpen Oil the road. to 8Ocla1iam.: Certainly petarian comments like Emeraon', will help no·one iD the lona run and wW only sene to NtnDle POtentially load aWe .. R..I. MIl .. 28 Geors. Road Guilclford Surrey CROFTER'S COMPLAINT Your article on the NATTA e·fuence in UC 16 appears to reveal anther disiurbinl atUtud.e. In panicu1ar •. 1 Wer to the section eDiitledCommunity 7\!chnoJoI'Y; your references to thole in 'run! retreat,'


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who only 'pla,.' with AT. (while. of cOune. you let·doWD to the real tb1D&); your tnainuatioDi 1hat what is appropriate to such a Iru.raJ. retreat' is notneceaarily . applicable to lnonnal' people in 'normal'siiua'iiom. Further subetantiation of this attitude appean in yom "reply to Ron8ld TurnbulPs letter in the .. me islue. A daace llC1'Outhe paae at the caption on the photo·It.ph of farm labourers is al80 reveaU.nc. Ceriainly of "much interest to social hiRorians". While it is appropriate that those in urban situations, such as yourselves. should devote the majority of their time to their own communities, the apparent need. to knock othez people in different td1.uation. can only lead to dbilion. The eonclem..natton of othen is. iD fact. part of the CODditioninCto which society subjec1s every Ode. Perhaps you do not env1la&e any nece.u.·y·for rural settinp. Perbaps" buried in your 8UbCOIlfCWua. is It wish to Join with the elty Planners in coverlna: the country with concrete and , asphalt. leavire. of coune. a few patchel here and there for allotments. Perhap,;. a few simple leSIOns iD econo1nics and bJololY woUld be valuable? My apolo&iel for soundinllO UPtiCht. but wben you are 'attacked' the reIPOnH·is natural. We all bave a part to play. We Ihould all take note of those words which you alwaYI deem fit to print in inverted commu; "awue:n .. •• and "conaeiowmea ehanl!nl" • Rob Cockburu South Wind·bill Croft Maud Ab·ud.eenahire FAILURES WANTED I have .lona been .. DdtdDlabout the·e and'iDYl'elatioDlbip with same. Do I reaD,. have to be a coD8WDer? Well. here', what I think. a) The letten are often the most intereatin,; Pari&. b) Iona: boriDa dlairibe, are a wute of God's 11' .... c) let up and do ii. Thea. t.a.Ur: about it. (Hence my sWled to ...... ) d) FoDowiD& from e)·wbee do people repon their falll1l'es? Not in UC ii would seem. 8ha.me :really. 'COI fallure. aDd. communicatin& details of them reaDy", important a.ad. in my view. IOmetlm .. more important than detaill of wee .... 1"m Prtlpved to siart • tdJrectOl'Y·of failure.'. 10 pleue .. nd. me •·ecis of your failure. (about 2·3 J)arapaphl aDd .. many drawmp as YOU like). I've lot a few hundred of my own to Idck off with! .Ion P. Baker 31 North Street Southmlnster Essex . HAY AGAIN Ronald Turnbull's letter on hay is perpetuatina a wasteful fallacy. What's all this about cookin. hay? Why does ext1'actinl the heat from. hay 'spoil'it? Heat in hay is produced by the respiration of bact·eria which use the natural 8\lIUI in the Imy as food. It'. a viciOUS circle: the heat enable. t·he bac1:eria. to reproduee. use more SUI&!'. create more heat. and 10. on. The end product is the cooked. hay he WAI ta.UdnI about·the COWl like it. but it has virtually no feedinl value. because all the loodness of those valuable INIUI bas been wasted. Con.clulion? Avoid. heat·ina wherever


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pOllS1ble·or extract any heat produced by any mean. at hancLJudIInJ by the amopt of cooked hay around. the poaaibBitles are encUe.! Incident.ally: cooked. hay is very palatable becauae It'. pVtIiDy fermented (thill88mI to appeal to COWl)·aDd tbla is·"bly·the bull to the myth, o_·.. Bleton Coll .. e of Alrlculture East Budlelih Devon EX9 7BY I hope that 'Hot Hay' Brown (UC 15) will find these suoe·sttons uselul. Forcinl vep'table and :seed J:rQwth with a ma.aurial hot·bed 18 a weD enabli8hed technique for exinctlnl UI8ftd hed from the benerk bac&erial JIOWth that const.iiuies decay, J AID: in the (parttime) proe_ofm, 11I1ti". other U88S foI tJtII:*·it beat SOUl'ee. Tbe·.Jiopefu1l7. iI heat PiPf,. 1"'._" to use the compoR hea:p·__ ,to the .HIt· bouse .. aa AT. ..... to mountinI wiDteJ'.puialBa·bIlk. but th .... one··coat; an 8" bl'\t."·Hmmerctal demonatl'aUoJt:a..t. pipe costa £&.2&. The answer·heat pipeI are simple in theory·bulld one! Standard coPper wat·er pipe seems the ideal case. lined. with a wick of (preferably) tbMIlhee't or copper I&uze. Itelt do ...·t work. TlJ,e bil problem it t·be workin. fluid. CommereialformulatlolUl are vade secrets IIUld probably too complex and. DUty for the handier bouMbold·laeip anyway, When I buDd OM that ",OI'Ju I'D let you know. u..whDe·all suae.&ions are ... elcomed. One :PI'ObJem I fOreae8·do .. nmoVIII of heat from baydacJEs . with befiopipe type .elftcieaClJ' alter the bioJQeIcel proc .. _aay _ The pro· dUOlld maJ'" DOt be 14 for tbe ·oollC8ndd.··· eoollq may increue the .... of decompo .... Uon by prolo·tbe HIe nan of the individual ..… . P.L.'_ 89 ICIDeion Road Sutton Coldfle1d ... MJd1aDAs MYSTICISM IS BETTER THAN SOCIALISM I have noticed a tendency to assume th.t·radical fechnolOlY should be a new type of socialism. I believe that aD sOcialism must by human nature leacl to totalitarianism. as haa happened in Russia and China already. and may soon happen in this country. As shown in 0rwell'119M the main, aim of totalitarianiim is the continuity and stability of the society. As I lee it. in the not too distant·tutwe, we are more likely to have a solar·powered totaiitariJnjsm _than a nuclD8I powered one (what better·way to maintain stability than to use Remexhaustable energy sources'f) Once governments have reallied that nuclear power is both uneconomic and unethical, they will twn to large·scaJe solar and wa·e energy·projects to keep the system going and there will be little improvement in Ow way of life. If the primary aim of radical technology is to achieve continuity and stability, this can either be" done through totaUtarianism. or through what I would call 'spiritual continuity'. Many "examples of st'iritual.continuity can be found ID the put. Surely the builders of th·Ley system had lome means of maintaining spiritua1.continuity. by controlling the 'earth spirit' 10 that they' Uved in harmony with their en·vironment and with each other. Therefore.my'messap is that we should see radical techDoJolY 81 a means


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of maintaining not political but ,:!'iritual contlnulty. Thus it shoul be a mystical or reUgious movement rather than aiKilltical one·a means of returning to the Garden of Eden by liviag inhuman)' with OUr. "./ en'¥irOniDent. and th1ll of achievtna the ultimlte myltieaI experience. ThiI could be done throuah the .. cient art of geomancy, abo_ wilieh little,. yet known. Clearly, thil iii nat a very practkal approach to our immediate problema. but it is better than alelar·powered bil brother. Carler House. WindSor, Berks. TOWN HALL TAKEOVER? It occunto·me tbai.P··.oae way in which W, caD.DlOytl toward. a·DOft1tate atdet,. 1I1hrovah local eo1lDC1l electloDL t caD lIJ.lmoa IMilz the IUPI. bui if you're not rich ... don't. have • Job whicb makeS It. poalble for you to work ..... y_ from towlUlo then tldI is aunl,. one way of maldD& the local COWlefls. who ue pOtentially lute land·own .. (lOme are nowl) use thillaDd tor amallholdinJl: etc. Aft .. Ul in Amatehlam the Provo. and tho .. that fOllo ... edthem bad a sll"tttc.nt effect on the city fathen. by beln8 on the eowacll. n _ more relevant to havtt peoPle wbo waat chanp on , a local council. than In Puliament for .ev.al l'eUOna. Fintly their. conirol over lanct. cont.rol of roadbuIldIna. and the locaDy oQaDiMd IOcial services. With lOcallOvernment reoram·tion of coune lOme eounen. are respoDllib1e for a nther Jarae &nOn,.:inoUi area. . I'm sure th8l'e'are P809" who wW ay '&bat ita llIeatralCoverJt. Undercurrents 17 DieDt and rlllionall'laaDbic bodie, whlCla haw the real power o·the above·menUoDed. but COD........ problem if • local council cUdn·& Wud • ro.d thro.ua1l.·1D1had of ... is unaI. co·operatlon! After aD It then bad been more Clay Oro .. type eoUDdJa. the 'I"" Of IlIAD,. ... would have been 10m. uaoIOvemment wm face loUd .... raoil' oppodtloa.. NoW'. the pr8cUealJ)lO'bIee of Pttlnl elee1ed. ""'y, I woUld think it adviaabIe to put up people who are teredlble' lD the .,. .. of your local pOpulace: after aD. I milbt vote tor a freak bu1; noCm&D.7 _ot·ben would (01' DOt; a 'YbIb)e' one that .). Then .... have the problem of whaC You are s&aDdbII ... NeaUM 'IDcIepeacleDt'·meaJ:W"..,. liUle to people. Uld if YOU Good. .. a 'J)Iaer' aand!d.aW·for example the name woWd ... aliUle off·putl:lnI for maDJ'". DO·bec&ae of any eODDOtaUoDI of San Prancilco etc.. but ju.t becaUl8' people have nenr Dead of W:lnltanley. &ad the name is a bit 'funny', So I PIOPO" a·1traiIh1:' name. borina t·bo· it il.How·about·the Community GrouP. on Community wettare (I never." .. much on namEII)··but I'm mre out there amoDest the readen of UC then is·someone who could think. of a 100d name. and perbaPi a few who woulcl qree with me! 1f there Ui anyone in·th1s VIllley. wbo doe. 1 wish they would .ee in iQuch. Tim Evans 3 Park View Oakenhead Wood Rossendale Lane, FIJI A.T.


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Greetings from (presumably) your most 'distant reader. Here in Fiji, as in most underdeveloped Countries, the 1973 'energy cr ... hit hard. After lona denberation tbe Government decided to establish an Energy Unit within . the Ministry rellponsib1efor social and economic planning. Althouah there Ja little mterest in. the country in A·.! the EnerlY' Unit I1as been Ipecttic.Uy charged with encolUaJinI·the loa] developmeRt of small·scale renewable enerlY techn01oaie1 and disseminating inform.dOn on alternative "energy sources·(al well as gove.rnm_t policy) to the public. As it is an orpD. of .an unracUcal a;O¥eroment it eoncentrat .. on hardware md th. products or IoceJ (but mostly forelp·oWlled) industry. Still, there is a ,enuine ettort, to encourage Ron·pallutta,so_, . windJbio18sJmini·hydro eaeqyon a small scale to our acatttlre\t islands. Peter Johnston c/o EneraJ' Unit Central PIaIwI: .... Office G_BuDdill .. S .... Fiji MILITARY UNDERGROUND I've 'ound'the murtary·1Uldiet·ground network. It wu lWfeclill 1969 and entailed an •. t expttiid·.. itun 'rom tbe Defence Bu4I;". The stutin,point fa under Knlablsbridl. Blrl'ackl ill Hyde Park. Unfortunately this is ,also ita flnishina point. Its tole pwpote. is to take away hone shit from tbe three bundred har"·in the ; stabl" two atoreya abo .... The shit is then·ed away to a mushroom farm ulOmewlNJre in Ellex". When the Officer of the Day was . queltioned under preII1U'e ha finany broke down slobberint "Now you Undercurrents people know about it·you've really puL us in the shit r" Dave the Knave, SIough Bucks


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• • • • • • • • • • • • The Ley That Always Was Below are two letters, an editorial reply and a quite separate editorial comment on the article in UC 16, The Ley that Never Was. OriginalIy Chris Hutton·Squire sought to show that the grand oldman of leys, Alfred Watkins, had been less than accurate in his field work. We're printing these letter and comments to show just what difficulties ley·hunting and inner technologies in general present to a responsible investigator. When is a ley not a ley? Do we need an explanation of leys before investigating them? Can we accept purely subjective phenomena like 'ley energy'? If you're a sceptic, these letter will fill you with delight·they confirm what you've known all along. If you're inquisitive and open·minded, however, they're a caution. Now read on .... Dear Undercurrents. I've just read Chris Hutton Squire's hatchet job on Alfred Watkins and ley Lines in your latest Undercurrents, No 16 in the article . entitled 'The Ley that never ""as'. It seems a very one·sided slanderous incomplete article only slightly rescued by the Stop Press item. The Ley referred to in the article is mentioned by Watkins in 'The Old Straight Track' on page 123 and the relevant paragraph is as follows:· ·'A church lay convenient to verify is to be found in the map which is put at Mr O.G.S. Craw·ford's 'Andover District, an Account of Sheet 283 of the one-inch Ordinance Map'. a monograph which contains special information invaluable to ley hunter. Here five churches Tidcombe, Linkenholt. Facombe, Burghclere. and Sydmonton align precisely. and on the ley are homesteads with the ancient names of Folly Barn. Bacon's (formerly Beacon's) Farm. and Curzon Street Farm. with fragments of present day road in approximate alignment There are also on the map eight alignments. each with four churches'. So here we have Watkins referring to Crawford's work without indicating that he checked out the ley himself on the ground·' perhaps taking Crawford"s work in·good faith. Unscientific maybe, but not the first time a person quotes other people's work without checking out the details themselves ·particularly If the work is favourable to their theories. Chris Hutton Squire's article failed to mention that the Ley aligned also on 3 homesteads mentioned above and fragments of· present day road.; Th_nay verify the ley·we have no way of knowing from Chris Hutton Squire's article. Elsewhere in his book Watkins makes it clear that with church's on leys that it's not the site of the church that's important. it's the site of the earlier pre·christian ute. Often the church is built over the site, but in other cues the site might be in the churchyard or nearby. So when Watkins laYS 'here rIVe churches built on or near align precisely: If this is so there is the. possibility of several tens of yards of movement in the


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proposed ley line indicated on the map. The only real way of checking out a ley is to get out on it with a map, compass and so on and check it out. It helps also to have a feel for the ley energy. I'm suspicious of an over·statistical mechanistic approach to leys. I see no reasons why Ieys should be totally straight·the tracks often go round mounds for example. From a ley energy point of view it's possible to alter the direction of flow of the ley energy (see John )Michell's 'View Over Atlantis'). So the ley energy may not always go on a straight line either. With regard to ley energy I I think It's possible that·leys either don't have ley energy on them and/or that some have a stronger ley energy with them. Instead of· getting into· mathematical approaches to ley lines, how about getting into feeling the ley energy·which is the real point to ley line, for me. 'Ley energy for the people!' In Undercurrents No 11 you have an interview with Paul Screeton, author of 'Quicksilver Heritage' and editor of the. Ley Hunter who said: 'If you,want to set a feeling : of what ley power:r is like, go into the crypt at Lastingham Church, and it'll change your life'. It did! So how about check·ing out ley energy. A couple of ley site] that I found to give a feel of ley energy though not on the scale of Lastingham are Hartlebury church and Wych}bury Hill earthwork! both in Worcestershire. How about an Undercurrents/ Ley Hunter trip to check out·the Ley that never was?' ' Yours energetically, Bill West 111 Tavistock Crescent, London WI I. Dear Sir. . Surely the ley·busting article by Chris Hutton·Squire was tongue·in·cheek. merely to provoke. I should have thought UC was the last place to fm<! such irrelevant upper·class scientifically elitist trash. We can pt that in the New Scientist!! Does everything have to have the seal of approval of the scientific establishment in order to exist? No doubt C h·S has a nice white lab coat and horn)·. rimmed glasses like you see in the aspirln ads on the telly. C h·S must be very scientifically. ally trained (does this mean he can jump through flaming neutrinos?) because in only the third paragraph he starts to play the. numbers game. You know statistics. That thing the weather can never quite get the hang of. Great significant:is attached to the fact that s. church was 1 mm out (later amended to 0.5 nun, percentage error 200% or is it 50%, I can never remember?) any more offer?! Now, how was this measured and what tolerance of accuracy was used as a standard? We unscientifically qualified j>people have to know this.. Was a Woolies ruler used with 0.15 mm gradation lines?· Were dividers used? Were they sharp? Perhaps a vernier was used.. Was it kept at 21 C in a standard room? How many copies of the map were measured and what is the variation from map to map? What is the dimensional stability of a map like? How many creases do they have? What about Doppler shift? Relativity? When I worked on a drawing board I was shown how to put a razor chisel edge on a 3H that would last


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all day. So I agree with you about A Watkins. knowing how to sharpen a pencil.Like most of us (unscientifically trained·gullible and stupid) people, ] have only a nodding acquaintance y,with friend Poisson , and his distribution, but v,when I plot a ley line on a map, I put the best straight line through all the points, just like a scientist plotting a graph. . ' Not many of these points are churches, by the way. It's incredible how many of these bogus lines all cross at the same point! 'When one gets into the etymology of all this then the hairs on the back really stand on end! Any·way [ can feel an attack of the E von Daniken coming so I’ll finish. There's just one thing I can't understand. Why do all these mounds still have a lone tree on the tip? Perhaps they are waiting for something. Yours Cyril Hughes FSC (Failed School Certificate) 17 The Leys Woburn Sands. or Milton Keynes.. Bucks. I am not surprised that some Iey hunters are upset learn that their guru has feet of clay. Leyhunting is a branch of Natural History not of Natural Theology; this means that. in Julian Huxley's phrase, we must 'lit down like little children before the facts'. even when what·they have to say is unwelcome. The facts of this·case are that the churches:s are where the Ordnance Survey say they are and they do.not align. Trying .. to 'save the phenomenon by a succession of ad hoc hypotheses like·medieval .. schoolmen propping up .the Ptolemaic cosmology won't work. Despite·much loose talk among leyhunters about mistakes on maps there is no evidence of serious errors that I've seen. The problem is discussed very fully in the standard work on the Ordnance Survey (Ordnance Survey Maps: A Descriptive Manual by J.B. Harley, chapter 11). Every leyhunter should read this book. Specific points: the lmm . error was judged by eye in the , first instance; subsequently it was verified by plotting grid references, using an ordinarY ' plastic ruler, with the vertical scale exaggerated u..on the sketch mar. in the article, . There s no reason at all to think. that this 'alignment' was due to Crawford; this is just a red herring. The three homesteads are only corroborative evidence: in this case there is nothing to corroborate so they are·irrelevant. If Watkins had . meant to refer to 'pre·christian sites' he would have·one so. ·We have visited three of the churches to check out this line. l am not_sensitive to ley energy' myself (I've been to Lastingham twice and remain obstinately unchanged!) but a friend of mine who is reported nothing. We are certainly keen to see 'ley energy' properly investigated. Chris Hutton-SquireComment 2 It seems to me that there are good points to be raised on both sides of the argument On the one hand. it is certain that the points analysed by Chris do not c· , constitute a linear alignment of high accuracy, one of his basic


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defining qualities of a ley. On the other hand, it is similarly obvious that Chris excluded at least three items of given data, i.e. the homesteads.. The churches are indeed where the OS states they should be, giving two three·point alignments instead of one five·pointer. Faccombe church is indeed in the 'wrong!; place'" so to speak. However, even assuming a strictly linear theory of alignments, which is by no means widely accepted (many researchers would agree with Bill West on this), aU that is proved is that Watkins was a measurable 0.5 mm out, +/- 0.5 mm on one point in what? 500? There must be hundreds of points determined in Th£ Old Straight Track alone, and if even one point in eight is half a millimetre out 1 reckon·that's pretty good going. Especially remembering the standard of maps at the time.. Chris has no right to exclude the three homesteads quoted by Watkins, by saying that they are 'only corroborative evidence'. They are quoted as part of the line .. One final word about Ley Energy. allis refers to a visit by three members of the Undercurrents group, including himself, to the churches described in The Ley that 'Never Was'. The other two visitors were Martyn Partridge and myself·when Chris says 'A friend of mine who is (sensitive to ley energy) reported nothing', the 'friend' referred to is me (still, J hope!), and to . say I 'reported nothing' is bad misrepresentation. I stated in our entry to Old Burghclere . churchyard that 1 was aware of a slight tingling sensation. 35 Martyn will testify, even though in view of Chris's article 1 was expecting nothing. But, I too, would like them to be double-checked, preferably by a good dowser acquainted with . this type of research. On the other hand, if so;called serious researchers like Chris are going to 'forget' inconvenient evidence, by denying its existence {leaving aside the·checkable·validity of the evidence itself, I would suggest that this calls into question the validity of their entire work. Richard Elen


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Elen KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY Electro·bioluminescence exists. Only interpretation and explanation for what appears is in dispute. Richard Elen gives details of the construction of a simple device.THERE HAS been a areat deal of meardI work performed in the US and the Soviet Union Into Kirlian Photography, a method developed by S.D. Kirlian and associates in the USSR for the investigation of phenomena that bear a strong relationship to the reports of 'auraS' reported by psychics. The aim of this article is to describe a method of producing a reasonably simple device that can be used to e""mine these phenomena. The design itself b taken from Psychoenergetic Handbook Nr. 1, ed. Earl Lane, publbh·ed by And/Or, San Francisco. The original device was designed by Larry Amos and Jim H)ckman, and works very effectively. in addition tothe generator itself, the e·perimenler will rieed 10 make a frame 10 holci a suitable film in position over Ihe electrode. Any type of film can be used: best results will probably be obtain·ed by using a large film size such as 120. roll·fiIm, as the method is to produce a discharge directly on to the film. For this reason, 35mm may provide too small an image·forming area. Film shooid be fi·ed emulsion side up on the electrode. Do not allow anything 10 contacl the electrode e·cept for the film and the . object to be photographed. Having positioned the film on the electrode, the object should be placed directly on the film. If you are using a small object such as a leaf or a crystal, it must be connected to the earth point of The famous 'phantom leaf' photo. The top of the leaf was cut off before the photo was recorded, but it still appears, suggesting an 'energy body'. the machine, otherwise no discharge will be obserVed. In the case of photographing a human being, there will be no need for an·earth lead, as there' will be sufficient leakage to ground. When e·perimenting, keep a full record of the conditions under which the photograph is taken, as y<Ju will find that the surrounding conditionstemperature, humidjty, and so on·and the settings of the controls will cause alterations of the image. It will be useful to number each shot by some means so thaI il can be compared later wilh notes made at the time. This could be done by scratching a number in the corner of the frame. Although good results can be obtained with black and white film stock, you will probably find that colour film gives more opportunity for detailed examination of the resulting image, as very distinct coloors will be observed in ,different parts of Ihe discharge. A retatively slow speed film, such as 64 ASA will probably give best results, alth,ough the best speed should be determined by experiment,· Alternative to the method described above, you can·usc a normal camera' .


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positioned to shoot the object through a transparent conducting electrode. To do this, • suitable electrode should be obtained and the camera positioned on a small tripod below it, facing the underside, at • suitable distance 10 fill the frame. Objects are_ then placed on the upper electrode surface. The camera ......... ; should be set on B or T and the shu·held open with a cable release for thej duration of the dischar.ge.) Exposures should, of course, be I made in total darkness for best results.Safety Considerable voltages are genera in this unil while it is in operation. I is found necessary to make internal adjustments to the equipment, al switch off, unplug the device, disch the one microfarad 500v capacitors an insulated screwdriver or other then connect the 'hot' side of the capacitor to earth with a jumper Ie·(Remember the side rule, 'Switch 0 Isolate, Discharge, Earth'). Neither _ Undarcur=/:$ or the desigriers Can·held responsible for any injury or·, damage resulting from the use or misi use .of this device. : When using the machine, do not: operate it on any person who has a history of heart trouble or has an , implanted pacemaker. The e1ectromilj netic field also produces a small quan of X·rays, about as much.as a colour· . set, so the device should not be used·the heart or genital regions. You have been warned. To eliminate the polarising effects of bio·magnetic fields, Amos and Hie . man recommend that anyone who WI regularly with bioelectric/Kirlian fielo and discharges should occasionally ta a bath in a solution of 1 tsp sea sail + 1 tsp. of soda in a tub of water. The Instrument The device described here is a higt frequency capacitive discharge systen somewhat similar to some forms of electronic car ignition. The capacitor in series with the TV line transforme is disl:harged by the Thyristor, or SC (Silicon Controlled Rectifier). This gives a high voltage pulse from the transformer secondary; the SC R is c, trolled by a relaxation oscillalor and timer. The device gives a low·current output of 20 KV al a frequency of at 20·25 KHz, with a pulse repetition r. of 250·2500 pulses per second. A rD' switch provides exposure timing: the 0.1 microfar.od up to 10 seconds, and the third switcl1'positiOn forlOflger periods. The P'orentlometerR4.determines. the exact time period, cwhile'R3' controls the pulse repetition rate. The'machine should iJeassembled in an earthed metal box, or on a standard aluminium chassis. front panel controls . are 51, 52 and S3; R3 and R4. The neon . indieator should besimilarly mounted: . The Eleetrode output should be termina·ted with an EHT ",rew·type·termlnal and shooldbe c"""uted to the electrode ,.;th" length .of EHT cable of the type used·for conne.:ting the anodes of TV tubes. A front·panel Earth Terminal should also be provided. lluring assembly, care should be taken . to avoid overheating the ICs,


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which are very sensitive to damage. Insert them last, ot better still mount them in IC . plug·in sockets. The NESSStype Ie's are available packaged ";th two in a single chip, under a different type num·ber. These should not be used, as they may interfere with each other. A useful material to use as an eleetrode is a piece of unetched printed circuit board. This <:an be connected to a.length of EHT cable and mounted irun insulated frame, to which Gan be fixed the film carrier. Circuit Testing When construction is complete, check out all connections. Insettthe Ie's into the holders (if used) and malse sure they . go in the right way round"·nect the electrode lead to the output terminal and' mount the electrode on an insulating surface. Set the power switcl1 and the electrode onloff ,witch (52) to the off position. Set the rotary switch to the 'long' setting (connected to ground) and rotate the pulse rate control fully dockwise. Plug in and switch on the power. The neon will light Switch the electrode switch to on; you should be able to hear a rising high·pitched tone, much like the noise produced by an electronic flashgun. If no tone is heard, rotate the pulse rate control fully antidockwise (you may have it round the other way if so, change round the outer two can·nections to the poL later on). The device will !>e operating untihyou switch the electrode switcl1 off. If no tone Can be produced, switch off, side (see above] ·and check the wiring. If there appears to be no.fault, replace the IC's. You may·have damaged the IC's, or they may have been faulty when you got them. Take them back. Apart from these, there is little that <:an go wrong. And that's really all there is to iL.If . you have any problems, write to Undercurnmts. We don't guarantee to be able _ to help, but we'll try. Similarly, if you have any suggestions for improving the device, let us·know. References The design in this artide is based on experiments carried out with a machine described in 'Electrophotography', Psychoenergetic Handbook No 1, edited by Earl Lane, and published by Andl Or Press, 3431 Rincon Annex, San francisco CA. 94119. It is distributed in the UK by Omnibus Books Ltd, 53 West Ham Lane, E 15 4PH, and costs £2.95 direct from them (post . free) or from any bookshop. Whilst . there have been a number of alterations made to the design, it still remains main·_ . Iy the work of Amos, Hickman & Cooper, and I hope they will nol object to the use of the design here. Thanks. Richard Elen ........Components List Resistors

.R1 681<,2W.


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R2 680R

R3 SOK variable (linear)

R4, . 'lM variable (linear)

Capacitors

C1 1 microfarad, SOOV, DC

C2 0.025 mfd., 600.. DC

C3 . 500 mfd., 12v, DC.

C4 1 mfd.,l2v. DC

C5 ' 0.1 mfd.; 12v. DC

cb 5 mfd., 12v. DC.

Integrated Circuits .

ICI, IC2 NE 555 (Signetics) or equiv.

Switches

Sl SPST mains toggle switch

52 SPOT toggle switch

53 Single pole, 3·way rotary

Transfonmers

Tl·Mains power transformer,

primary '246·250., secon'. daries 2S(}.().2So., 40rnA . and 6. 3v·2A. ' .

T2 TV type Un. output trans·

former, B & W TV type.

Diodes

01, 02, 03 . any 1 KV PIV, 1 A,' type

D4 Bridge rectifier, .12v rated.

05 Silicon Diode, any type

SCR 2N4101 (RCA) or 2N4444

(Motorola) Miscellaneous

FSI ' fuse,2A

Mains neon panel lamp

EHT terminal, earth terminal, fuse holder, PCB for electrode, Chassis, IC holders, Knobs, tagstrips, 'etc as necessary for

construction. .


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Ruth Elliott Women and·Alternative TechnologyIn the type of social set'up AT makes possible, the role of women'·and of men·becomes tr;lnsformed: Ruth Elliott shows the alienating effects of the Industrial Revolution and how we have yet to break out. , : • ; The AT movement has only just begun to address itielf to some aspe·ts of the yast problem area of te·hnology and sodal reLations. One aspect that has been' notably neglected is the relationship . between men and women, the social and technical division of labour between the sexes. Way back in summer 1973 the issue was first raised in the pages of Undercurrents when Lyn Gambles wrote: "If all the women in the alternative Stience and technology movement end up building all the windmills, then no·one will be liberated." But in the intervening period there had been surprisingly little debate. Diana Manning's crfticisms of the . Bradford Conference (UC 14)·that there was Iinle or no discussion of why so few women are interested in technology or of issues like domestic work and child care·can safely be generalised to the AT world as a whole. Rather than adding to such accusations of male·chauvinist·insensitivity however, this article is "c:om;erned to open up a more constru·tiYe debate by looking at some of the historical reasons underlying this . present state of affairs and exploring their implications for future strategy. In many ways it is perhaps not surprising that women have been very much on the fringe, since AT has all too often been seen as synonymous' with hardware, and hardware is the hallowed province of the male. The AT world, like its counterpart in conventional technology, is very male; It is men who experimentJ innovate, harness and tame natural forces in the service of human needs, and who are generally at the forefront of the battle for survival; women, where they are involved, perform 'back up' or 'service' . roles or concern themselves with 'natural' processes of child·rearing or food pro·. duction. They appear to be very dependent for their surviyal on the technical skill and prowess of mel). Perhaps the immediate defensive response of some people is that this division of labour is natural and ineyitable, and biologically preordained. The very popularity of such myths is indeed potent evidence of the way in . which the history of women has been distorted in the narne of upholding male supremacy. But fortunately the mythical nature of these arguments can be demonstrated if we pay some attention to the findings of anthropological research. As Lee Comer . has commented of pre·literate societies' : "There is hardly a sinKie society which existed (or exists) by hunting alone. Hunting w", most.often a precarious and fruitless exercise and at bes.! provided an addition to the staple yegetable diet, . and skins and materials from which to make tools. These societies depended __


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equally for their surviyal on the skills and ingenuity of the women who gathered food, hunted small game, deyeloped . techniques with their digging sticks to cultivate crops, domesticated animals, milked and fleeced them,·used fire to cook and preserve food, made ,pots, wove cloths, tured skins, discovered and refined herbal remedies, built houses, reared the YQung and cared for the old." As another writer has commented, the . households these women managed "were not simply the collectiye kitcliens and sewing rooms; they were also the first factoriesl scientific laboratories, schools, and medical centres.…………..when Adun cL*ed unci Eve.span who then Wa3 lhe JleDtleman? …………..Anthropology reminds us that women have not always been marginal to the world of technological development and innovation, acting purely as consumers. It remi/ldSl;s also that no pattern of social relations·s 'given' or inevitahle. In some primitiyesocieties, the sexual division of labour is as s!Tong as it is in our society; in others it is minimal. The message is the ..........famili"ar one·that socia(retations are·moulded by specific economic and , technological deyelopments and theref·can be susceptible to change through It conscious pursuit of aJternative ecooorl and technological forms of interaction; Any such strategy of political and SOl change, however, must be based on 1 a clear understanding of the historical processes in which we are trying to in yene. It was'during the relatiyely rece period of the 'Industrial Reyolution" many of !he key changes that now characterise men's and women's role. about·in particular the separation 'productive' work (men's work) from 'nonproductive' domestic work (w work) and, the separation of the locu production (factory) from the locus consumption (family). Before the Revolution·In the period between the collapse the Feudal System and the COming·f Industrial Reyolution, the.family it was the major unit of production, pr , ducing goods both for self·suff'tcient·1 surviyal and for exchange or sale. Theo1 was an integration of domestic and I economically productive work and , and women played roles in both sph These social relations were based on·, a specific form of economic relations. namely the unity of capital and labo Th·. family both owned the stock an tools and contributed the labour. Fo example, the home of a: family eng cotton production was like a minia factory: the entire process of produc , from raw material to finished cloth, contained within it. Women played Vital a,role in all productive spheresal men. there is evidence that women's' in agriculture may ha..edomlnated tr.of men; women played a yitarmte in . cotton and


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woollen trades and also in skilled and trades and retail professiol In the 17th century they produced m of the bread and beer in E·:d indeed brewing appea·to have beenoriginally an entirely female.occupati In the 16th and 17th centuries, the CI guilds (coyering occupations like stationers, booksellers, printers, leath sellers, carpenters, grocers, goldsmith apothecaries, blacksmiths) admitted women on an equal basis·with men, _ their charters expressly rnention sisto well as brothers·something noticea absent often from the constitutions ( present·day trade unions.Along with this active productive r €If women in the economic:; Iife·of th. community went a totally different attitude to marital relations. When married,·women as well as men were expected to carryon with productive work; there was no idea,' except among the upper classes, of the woman's economic dependenCe on the man in marriage. It was not considered to De the duty of the husband to support the wife or the children, and in practiCe women usually supported themselves and their children through their own work. The following quote' from an 18th century tract illustrates well th is point: "Consider my dear, girl that ... you cahnot expect , to marry in such a manner as neither of you·w,i11 have occasion to work, and none but a fool will take a wife whose bread must be earned solely by his labour, and will contribute nothing towards it herself.'" The economic independence of married women was reflected in the system of state provision for poor and unemployed, which until 1795 did not differentiate Detween men and women. In this 'preindustrial' period, the 'domestic' work which today is regarded as the sole province of the married woman was performed by unmarried girls and boys, under the supervision of the married woman who herself worked in the family ,industry. It is an important but'rarely recognised fact that male child servants and apprentices were as likely to be involved in housework and the care of children as female children. The major diyision of labour in the family was in fact by age and not by sex. The unskilled and technologically undemand ing work was performed by the young, but both sexes could rest reassured that they were not doomed to such actiyity for life. For adult men and .women, there was no sharp distinction Detween domestic and economic roles. When the place of work was the home or the area immediately around the home, it was possible both for the mother to De engaged in productive work and for the father to sPend time with the children. Neither was the sphere' of education separated from the sphere of productive work. Children of both sexes Decame familiar from an early age with the production technologies practised in the family unit. Enter Capitalism .... The point of describing at this length the domestic and productive relations in the preindustrial period is not to extol it as some golden past to which we should return, but to focus attention on why the . pattern of sexllal and


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social diyision of labour that existed the,n has changed .into the very different pattern that exists now . A key factor in this process of change was a shift in the economic basis of pro·' ductive activitY, a gradual breakdown of that integration of capital and labour . . referred to earlier, which again serves as a reminder that we neglect at our peril the economic basis of alternative forms of technology. The first major change c<!me about when the merchant increasingly intervened as a 'middle man' both in selling the goods made by the family and in supplying the capital for the family in the form of raw materials, equipment and increasingly sophisticated machinery. This was the stage of 'mercantile , capitalism' , to be followed by the development of 'industrial capitalism' as tf1e locus of work was shifted from the home to the factory. The factory owners now both provided c<!pital and bought labour power. By iocating the workin a factory they were beller able to discipline and coinrol the labour force and get maximum productivity from th'e labour power, they had hired. Technological deVelopments too encouraged the growth of factory production; ilS'early machines were improved and enlarged and adapted to water and later steam·' power, cott·es could no longerhouse them. Changes in social relations in response to these developments were gradual rather thanl:lramatic. The family did not immediately split into productive father·factory, domestic woman and children ·home. So great waS the assumption that all of the family played an essential productive role that the whole family , initially moved to the factory. As one writer has commented·J·Whole families would be hired, with the husband·father allocated to one job, and the womenand children to another. Parental authority could still be exercised; and children could be trained by and apprenticed to their parents as under the old domestic . system."s This indeed was the main reason for the approval of child labour·' tl)at parents could still participate in and supervise the upbringing and technical and moral education of their ch ildren. Ironically what contributed as much as anything to the final 'plit into the male productive world and the female/child, non·productive world was the <:ampaign·ing of the liberal philanthropist; 0' the 19th'centllrY against certain aspects of the factory system. They were disturbedat much of the exploitative and dehuman·, ising nature of factory work, but being cautious middle class reformers and not. revolutionaries, they sought not to challenge the basis of the factory system as a whole, but rather to prorectthe supposedly 'weaker' elements·first children and later women'·from'its most brutal excesses. The unintended results of their wel.l·meaning reforms were far·reaching. The status of children was furnfamentally altered; they bOl:ame 'dependent, baliished to the non·productive world of home. And with them gradually went women to tend the children. For as factories ceated to employ the labour of whole familles, the employed mother (and father) came to face the modem


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problem of how to care for chirdren in a world which spatially divided home and work. The number of married women working gradually declined and married women betame increasingly associated with domestic, non·productive work, and unmarried women', for a ten'lporary period before marrioge had real earning job,. BUt because their productive work was seen as essentially temporary, they gradually took on a subOrdinate role in the productive process, and were assigned to unokilled rather than okilled work. The process of technological disenfranchise·ment was beginning.The increasing differentiation of child and adult roles, and the increasing dependence of the child·reinforced by the 1870 Education Act which provided for compulsory elementary education for all children·h'eralded the dependence of women in marriage and their restriction ' to the home, where they have little to , share with their children but their own , isolation. Changing attiwdes to sexuaL roles were underpinned by the development of the Victorian docuine of feminine domesticity and reflected in the extension of factory legislation to include women of all ages along with children as 'protected persons', Burdened now with Ille !Roral and materia} dutY of supporting dependent wives and childre", the nWe factory wo""e" joined forces with'the reformers to &Ot all women out of Ille '.' factories; women factory werice" were now seen .as a threat to job security and breadwinning 'C.ilJl<Il;ity. Some .... omen did of,c:oune continue to wort·it was " , an economic necesslty. But the norm, the .: illl'<l#' to aspire to became 1I1e middle c!aJs'lmage of domesticity and .• dependence. . One hundred years later .... . WOmen now make up 38·of the work·", foru,'and'6·of working women are, married. WOmen .,.e no longer creatures, , Who exi,twholly il> the domestic sphere. ' " AndiAdeed It is'undeniable that in.1lle ' , last few dOl:ades, there has been a arowifig , ; demand f<lrfemalelabourJri Certain"" '" .. sphered of the economy, and women.Jw/e , :' .... ntered the productiYO sphe·In large , numbers. However;they.still do not :: pamcipate in productive work as equals' with men. They an: very much regarded as temporary or floating members of the workf6ree. to be eniployed when needed and laid off first when demand falls. Employers.do not think it wprthwhlle to Inve,t in the Uaining <If women', and so ' women are concenuated into a p.,.tlcular group of ,.,gely unskilled 'women's jobs' manyof",hich often mirror the 'serv,ice' functions of th·ir domestic role. Nearly , .. ' 8 out <)f 10 women work in one of the , four types of job:·offic:etcOmmunica·, tions,caterlng/domestic, unskilled/semi."·ilI4lct lIlaflUfac.Ul(ing, Sales. The techno····'··b»··.L·'.' intensified. Wh",.·os in preindustrial soci·ty women managed households which were the first factories, labclra··tories, medical centres, today women play a marginal and subordinate role in all these now sep.,.ate institutions. Through·out


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their socialisation women a.re . encouraged to see the proc·ss of technological innovation as a male fun·tion and to see themselves a, essentially consumers of technology. Such concepts of role , differen!!"tion permeate our education 5¥stem, as the following telling extract fmm the 1963 N·wsom report indicates: "A boy . _ . comes readily to his teacher hoping to learn how to control events. ; The pi may come to the science lesson with a less eager curiosity than the bOy. ' but she too will need to feel at home with mach inery and will be subject to the prestige which science has in the world." Women's re\aUomlUp to,technoIogy Is .·9fextteml' r ) .• s,ll!,tIW ........ at:pu··.II./··lIiH l116ef ....... ¥f'i.·_tn 'JtfPi; flu·n'.Ii·'.!§"·.·__·.rapcjatiw ldilrt"·clllilnSuciIptIontilayare tqOd,to aeuqlre maN and more of the high technolOgy products of the productive world·products designed to require minimum skill and knowledge to operate. SCientif'1C management? :' Of course, thisalien.ation.hbYno means confined to women..J!lt;··'of , the subdivision of 1abc:lu·1",1ndustJyh.il$ , , meant thasall'··rlenced" a loss <If ski" ancl'technicaJ cOmpetence in··tIleir jobs. Managements have be·n only' too aware that knowledge i. a k·y to 'control and have been concerned to follow the principle of F.W:Taylor, the father of 'scientific management' in transferring all possible brain work from the shop to the higher levels <If the ·industrial hieran:hy, It i.!jecausewomen are at the very bOttom of this hierarchy that the pr<lblentS'of alienatiou.are so acute for them. ' ,,' What is' to·(b;ite? So' what <:an we do? What strategies, if , any,are available (or trllnsfonningthe . social division of·. inc!u\lipg, reI·····.and , 'lllhatis.ifte:roIO'Df.·'lii\hiS< proc:lSll, A useful .tarting point is to revi·w some of the strategies pUt, forw.,. by other people and groups, under the, necessarily simplified headings of the 'radical feminist' strategy, the IMarxist' strategy, and the 'anarchist/libertarian' strategy. The first two of these ' approach·s tend towards the view that current ecOn<lmic and technological developments contain within them the seeds of our salvation. The third appro presupposes a need for a fundamental break with existing forms, of technical organisation. 1: The raAIlcaI feminist appreach Adherents to ,this approach, which has found more supporters in the women's movement in America than in this country, believe that the dichotomy between the domestic and prOOuctive, ,Phe.es of ou.lives and the implications' of this for male/female roles will be come by technological developments eliminate human lnvelvement in the pr ductive sPhere; Automation is the say , As well as relieving man of the need


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to sweat for a living, technological ad will simultaneously relieve women of . need to sweat In labour and child·rea . through advance. ,n contraception and: artificial reproduction: " ... a shiftin·'. emphasis from reproduction to contra·, copticn and demands for the full ' ment of artificial reproduction would pro>ide an alternative t<l the oppress of the biological family; cybernaWn. changing man', relationship to work a wages,by transforming'activity from ; 'work' to 'play' (activity done for its, '·own sake), would allow for a total, redefinition of the economy"inchidint lhe familY Unit in its economic cap .. TM double curse, that man should 'soiI by the sweat of h is brow. and IhW women should bear in pain and trav . .·W be lifted through technology IlJ·humanelivin& for the first . a"flb'll}'.·The impli¢ation is that·m.,ldncr ...... tlCientlf'1C and techn 10Ii·1 capablIky·to transcend the bio1000000.bases of the sexual dIvision of labour. 2: The Marxist approach To oversimplify grossly, the Marxist' approach sees the route to salvation liberation, not thmugh the abolition , human involvement in producthle.ww " ','·ah the full rein·egration of ,'. , I']' 11·,·productive process., ·fiIy_·IlI!E..I!IIU n'. thr slalle:institutionsrc)ffiiPBlIP I .' domestic role of women, and In particul of the child·rearing function. To quoteol Engels" ..• the emancipation of wom·and their equa/ltywith men are , impOs.ibleand mUstremain'So as lonu women are excluded, from socially prOij ductive work and resUicted to housew1 w. hi·h is, private. The emancipation of j WQmen become.s pOssible only when ,1 women are enabled to take part in prO:j , duction on a large, social, scale, and 1 when domestic duties require the,ir _j attention only to a minor degree.'" "'! full involvement of women in the pro·j ductive sphere would provide an «gall! isati<>nal base for men and women to·J .; snv_·th<r' for me> traftsformatl!l of the economic relations that at p",sent exploit both Sexes, a transformation that must inevitably come about as the developing forces of production, underpinned by technologicol ad vane .. , out1JOW the confines of the existing economic framework. 3: Anarchist/libertarian approach _ This approach is based on a belief that salvation is not cOntained within existing social processes; it is not just a case of acting as a 'midwife' to processes already going on. The only way to transform social relations is to make a fundamental break with present forms of technological organisation. What is needed above all is a simple technology which is accessible to all people, men and women,,.specialists and no":specialists, a technology that is amenable to decentral local control and does away with the need for huge concentrations of economic power and exploitative hierarchies·of authority. This approach, ratj!er than urging the abolition . of either the domestic or the productive "··::: sphere, calls for a reintegration


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of the two. The transition to small·scale decentralised production would help in achieving this, ceontring production on the self·contained unit of the family or commune, where·capital and labour are once more reunited. Peter Harper has explored some of the various options here (UC 6) recognising that there might be a continued need for the large·scale mass producti0!l of some basic components, but stressing that as far as possible; production should be based on small local units. The advantage of this is that the differentiation of roles between men, women and children could be con·siderably reduced. All can be involved in the productive technology of the com·munity; both men and women can . combine productive work with domestic and child·rearing functions, since home and work would not be spatially divided, and children too could be involved in the process of produc:ti"n as part of their education and soci·lisation. The pro·ductive process would be part of the education process, and child labour would not be a criminal offence.·Strategies for the future The first two of these three approaches with their shades of Brave New World , seem, to me at any rate, to pose more problems than they answer. Can you totally automate the "roductivesphere? W·n't mankind be even more alienated if human invo.lvement in productive work is totally abolished? Do we iiInt artificial reproduction and isn't that the·height of alienation? And anyway precisely who up there is orchestrating all these Incredible technological developments? By far the most attractive of these approaches to date as far as the AT movement has been coneerned is the third decentralised low·technology approach. There have been numerous experiments in commune living committed·o nonexploitative technology and non·alienated social relations. The overall impression is ·that the sexual division·of labour has been hard to break, but at the same time there is evidence that these social and pro'ductive units can provide the sort. of environment that is a stir·1Ulu!. 10 cha.nge. As Philip Brachi has commented of the . BRAD experiment: "As people are enabled to grow in freedom, sexist roles may·be blurred or broken: a man . becomes a child·minder, a cook; a woman becomes a carpenter, a car·mechanic." As Brachi concludes "the essential message from here seems to be that building a solar roof, one's own house even, is child's play·compared with close, honest open communal living Iherein." (UC 14). Important as such experiments in selfsufficient rural commu nalliving are, they are inevitably doomed to be 'marginal'. Most of uslive and will continue to live and work in the large prciductive orga". isations of which Engels was talking. And indeed few communes would survive without.these la·e productive organisations that produce the basic hardware for their technological experiments. In the large·scale mass


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production urban world the potential for developing alternative technologies may be more limited although initiatives like the Lucal one and experiments in community technology suggest there lT1ay be more potential than many once thought; and there is undoubtedly unlimited .scope in terms of devising strategies that encourage men and women to change their attitudes to technology and to each other, and to develop an awareness of the need for more wide·ranging e.=onomic, social and technological change. A central element of aU·such strategies must be that they help to break dciwn the divisions between ttie productive and domestic worlds, This means encouraging and enabling as many . ,women as want tn to join the product·ve .. world of the factory or office; it also means encouraging men to playa more . active part in certain community activjties th.at are often regarded as the sphere of women . The very,fact of encouraging women·to t " .. playa more active role in the productive. . :·.sphere. is bound to precipitate" var;ety of •. J'" ·. 'tlem.nds and issues that either overtly or .··covertly challenge or subvert our dominant forms of social and economic organisation and confirm people ill a belief that alternative forms of social, technical and economic organisation are both necesSary and possible. For example, women can not fully re·enter the pro·ductive sphere unless there is adequate maternity leave and child care facilities, unless indeed there is a move towards the socialisation' of child care. These demands will not be won without a struggle; but such struggles will be important political and social processes in themselves. Above all, such struggles will require the collective organisation of men and women together in trade unions. I t is in such a context that men and women can come to recognise the common basis of many of the problems facing them and transcend the false antagonism encouraged QY the media and the establishmen\ between the 'housewife' as consumer and the greedy trade unionist as producer. Through collective organisation and struggle there might. arise a questioning of the emphasis of our present system on satisfaction in consumption rather than in production, a questioning of the logic of a system that . forces workers to spend their days in soul·destroying and indeed dangerous work in order to prOduce llabour·saving' consumer goodies. Women at present are some of the major defenders of ever·increasing affluence, often because it is only through material possessions that they feel they can define and enhance their status, given the low social status of the role of housewife. By participating more as workers, they may come to value more the quality of working life, using ·. union organisation to back these demands. Incidentally, this means a fight, not to withdraw the protective factory legislation from women, which is clearly . the approach favoured by the Govern·ment', but to extend It to men. Another issue that cannot be ignored, as women becom·involved in greater ........numbers in the productive sphere, is t question of technical expertise


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and education. For unless women acquire a greater range of technical skills they remain second class producers in a lml paid and exploited ghetto of women's jobs. It might be argued that women a best uncontaminated by present techr logy. But this is questionable. By becoming more involved in technologi developments women may wellbecon more actively critical of present mode technology. Clearly the root of this problem lies in our school and higher education system, but there are also immediate training demands that can I made in the industrial context. A rece report by the Manpower Services Com mission on 'Training Opportunities fOI Women's stressed the need to recruit a train mote women for technician jobs! particularly in engineering, if·there are to be acute shortages of such workers: the near future. Clearly the MSC is pw concerned with easing manpower, shortages that couid act as abrake on, economic growth, but we should be·pared to ensure that any training sch·and incentives they offer are used to 1 full as part of the process of changin81 women's attitudes to technology. I In the domestic sphere there is mu that can be done in terms of commu "'''''' ,., ,",,., ,,,m ". 'W. , quite a simple level. Again such expe, ments can' lead to a questioning of c quite fundamental assumptions of'ou present technological and economic system·do we all need our washing machines, TVs and so on. Linked to' of community workshops and com allotments such experiments can hel blur distinctions between sexual rol between the productive and domes' spheres, and rather than dividing m women and children can help into them into a world of shared experie The message for those of us who AT to go hand in hand with alterna forms of social and econom ic organi tion is clear. We're ducking the issue·• concentrate po the nuts and bolts a vaguely hope that the rest will all fal place with the perfection of the hard' side. We need to put as much effort id thinking about alternative SO<:ial rela·as·alternative technology·or rather 1 need to see the two strands as ltisepan part of the same process. It is a fightl touches the core of our present mode social, sexual, economicancl te·hno·'logical organisation. '·" Ruth EIIiottBooks 1. Lee Comer, Wedlocked Women. Fem·Books, 1974 2. Evelyn Reed; Problems of Women's Libenztion. Pathfinder·Press, 1970 3. Ann Oakley. HoUlewife. Allen Lane. 1! chapier 3 ' , 4. ibid. S. ibid. ..··, , 6. Shulamith Firestone, The Diillect;c of·Jonathan Cape. 1,971 : 7. Friedrtch Engels, The Origin of the Hill Private Property and·the State,


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1884 _··8. Manpower Services Commission. Trai_ Oppol'tunities for Women; Training 8ei! , Agency, t·75, "


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• • • • • • • • • • • • Screeton Astrology On The Ground: The Terrestrial Zodiacs With wide publicity given by the medino the new awareness that our prehistoric anceston were not skin·clad, woad·painted savages, but skilled mathematicians and surveyon, the concepts of geometrically·sophisticated stone circles as posited by Prof. A. Thom and the existence of aligned prehistoric monuments, the leys, as redisCovered by Alfred Watkins, have allowed a new spirit of interpretation of the past. Related, with apparent equal importance are the telT8Strial zodiacs·astrological designs evolving across the countryside. Pliul Screeton, author of Quicksilver Heritage and former editor of The Ley Hunter, here presents the fullest account yet published of the unfolding tej)estry of our landscape, MRS KATHERINE Maltwood was pottering around the GlaStonbwry area when she was struck with a thought that may yet turn out to be as profound as Newton's observation of the falling apple or the Duke of Edinburgh's recurring obsession with his ebbing bath water, She had stumbled upon an outline of a zodiacal sign'. Thus w<pte Geoffrey Moorhouse in an article. Despite articulate commentaries in occult magazines and the occasional 'serious' newspaper or magazi.ne, terrestrial zodiacs are still not part of the general public consciousness. Geomancy is the study of sacred history and leys have become a lynch pin. Important as they are, they have vastly overshadowed research into terrestrial zodiacs and this article is designed to encourage a partial redressing of the balance; also consolidate the view that there may be laid across Britain·likely the whole world·a system of designs based upon astronomical relationships designedin these forms and with sites named by assoclatlon in the landscape. Too many people ...no have vaguely come across the subject believe the Somerset Giants around Glastonbury must, even if they considered their "possible validity, be a freak construc·tion. Mrs Maltwood wrote extenSively upon the subject, but her discovery is far from unique, so let me restart at another point ... Excuse me, but. .. ." There was a knock at the door. The short, wiry, mid·30s stranger with rainbedraggled hair, Peter Wyngarde·style moustAche and accompanied by a deerhoundJ announced with abrupt 3.5suredness that he had discovered a County Durham terrestrial zodiac. By letter author John Michell had suggested he get in touch with me a·d he had literally jumped straighi into his Land Rover and driven down to Hartlepool from North·West Durh'lJ1l." Over spaghetti and chips we discussed the implications of the


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newly·revealed Stanley Zodiac. Using bright paints the enigmatic gypsy had traced and filled in c .. the astrological figures on an Ordnance Survey map, reflecting the heav·ns in . the landscape around the appropriately termed Middles, where on Sunday afternoons elderly Geordies play tossing two coins in the air with a forgotten. remembrance of a rite associated with the sun and moon. I We went to Hart and wandered into the churchyard. Inside, the elderly Canon D. T. Eastwood gave us·including the dog Avalon·a conducted tour of the Saxon church. Interestingly his first comment concerned 12 effigies which he pointed out, with perhaps a twinkle in his eye, did not, except for one, relate to the zodiac. Companion Tom Cole pointed out that all the trees in the churchyard were " associated with Scorpio and that here maybe lay another zodiac. I checked that evening and I named this tentative assemblage of figures Fleet Shot Hill Zodiac. But more of this all!Jn, for again I backtrack in a sense·to Tom's revelation, for this focusses the dual factOr in the . research between logical Conjecture and that which is characteristically triggered by supernawral agencY …… “ ” Fireball As Tom wrote: 'On New Year's Eve, 1969, my wife, two friends and myself were in my home. I was busy working on a chart in an attempt to discover the. cause of dimate effects. It was a beautiful clear night and terrestrial phenomena was 0 quite active. The conversation from my wife and friends was concerned with the festive mood. Leaving th°e table I sat on an old sea chest near the window to listen (myself being a little prejudiced·against 'introduced' festivities). All this time I was aware of my attention being drawn out of the window. Someone mentioned it was near midnight. The radio was switched on for 'Trafalgar Square' celebrations. We were expecting 'first foots', which is a custom in the North East But on the stroke of mid·night. from the south·western horizon, appeared a large ball of fire, coming straight at me. 1 called for the others ...nile menully landmarking its position. It carne to a place called the Middles and departed back over Taylors Hill. Not having a map, I used a celestial chart as a substitute. The result was incredible . It had come to a point and returned at an angle .of 300• Now knowing this ar.a like my hand, it appeared to land at Langley Castle (Old Lang Syne). The folloll(ing morning we went along its apparent path but discovered nothing. After the holiday I bought Ordnance Survey maps. My task was to find a link between the heavens and the land. Lay·ing the maps, corresponding with thecelestiaJ north of my charts, I quite soon diseovered a coincidence. This phenomen·on moved along Aquarius to the centre, then along the winter solstice line. Now, in thatoar·lies a place called Cornsay (Cronus gave his name to corn; Saturn is the ruling planet of


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Capricorn). From this I used the Middles as my celestial pole and plotted a map of the heavens on the O.S.map. The result was this, on each star of the constellation there correspond·ed a mound, spring, pit, waste ground, etc on the land. But by far, more obvious·were the place names, pub names etc. From this I decided that each zodiacal month I would examine species in its corresponding area. Of c:ourse, quite soon it became apparent that the footpaths were charted to fit the celesfial chart. I began to map them OUL The 'result being the zodiac in tapestry, as well as other constellations in the land. 'To' anyone interested in this, I (ecommend the following procedure. Set "your points or compass 4}s:" radius: for a 1" to the mile map, use the Middles as your centre, Jyeston as the vernal equinox, . . and begin as for a celestial charL It would be helpful to note that the lamb's tail begins at Lope Hill (to frisk), Taurus is White·le·Head"and Tanfield, Virgo is Vigo, Libra is Chester·Ie·Street and Lumley, Scorpio (The Lambton Worm) etc " . .' I had a strange respect for Tom though never really came close to figuring him ouL Nearestcomparison would be that between author Carlos Castenada and" Yaqui Indian shaman Don Juan, for Tom was always testing me. Typically, he vanished in an aura of mystery. The present situation When asked to contribute a survey of the present state of zodiac research, I realised how painfully inadequate had been the investigations and see the finger of.accusation pointed at myself·and others. My personal research has been >Cant, though I have keenly documented . others' work, but I do believe that among the zodiacs I have postulated the one certtrCd upon Fleet Shot Hillis valid. Just for InstarKe, where Leo would lie we have Pswton Hill and Crookfoot Reservoir where the beast's forelegs lie and a Red Lion public house in the sector.·But it is to the Glastonbury Zodiac thaI we must look for the fullest confirmation that terrestrial zodiacs are a reality. Though Elizabethan astrologer Dr John Dee is alleged "to have referred to the pattern·, Mrs Maltwood deserves to be the person most .associated with this zodiac. Her book, 'A Guide to Glastonbury's Temple of the Stars', is an intuitive, erudite account of her discoveries, descriptions of the places, interlaced with folklore and mythology, particularly of the exploits of King Arthur and his knights. She believed that in Somerset the Arthurian Grail legends accumulated and could be localised. In considering the possibility that anyone could see such creatures on any map, she pointed out that it 'would be i"possible to find a circular traditional design of zodiacal and other constellation figures, arranged in their proper order, and correspOnding with their _ti"" 'f1In. unless they had


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thus been laid out in sequence, according to plan'. The Astral Zodiac The zodiac, as known by astrology and astronomy, is a band encompassing ·editorial note. the"paths of the planets, sun and moo with the ecliptic at its"centre. It has been shown to be common to China, American and Western Asia, and possi the Indus area in prehistoric times, wi the Sumerian zodiac accepted comm Iy as the oldest and seems, from cora·. mentators, to have appeared there fUlly: developed. The evidence from Britain" . adds a problematical aspect to defining·the period when man first visualised " the constellations by projecting on to " the heavens animal or deity forms, Despite this chauvinistic projection, J suspect the zodiacal identification began in Britain and that its recognition was here most completely developed. . The zodiac is a highly subjective construct involving star groups given the symbolic forms of living beings (except Ubra). Apart from Scorpio, the constellation patterns do not really resemble the figures they represenL COnsequenUy the presence of roughly similar zOdiacs in widely separated areas suggests borrowing from some early centre, as yet unidentified. Regularity of division can be another area of objection for the seep·. tic, for this is not a characteristic of the earliest zodiacs. Earliest versions may haVe been limited to the constel tions serving by their hellal rising to indicate solstices and equinoxes. The Indus zOdiac may have had eight divIsions, bUt the Mesopotamians had 12 sections or houses of 300 each designated by zodiacal signs. The central problem It has taken some time to work around to the central problem, but .herewe meet it face on. For five years I have been actively encouraging research into terrestrial zodiacs, yet I must admit the evidence must appear absmally disappointing to the scientific fraternity. The foregoing must have shown that I was initially encouraged .to view this aspect of the Earth's Mysteries by intuition .. This article's intention and projection is not 50 much revelatory but designed to focus on the inadequacies of research. This aspect of landscape geomancy is potentially the most exciting, yet it is perhaps being shu nned by want of contemporary new breakthroughs. With diplomacy, what is presented here is"as far as I am concerned,a trained "working journalist's opinions on a testy subject. I am not altogether impressed with the data I've analysed, but I believe there is a real pattern of arranged zodiacs to be verified. I have attracted information on zodiacs and do not doubt the sincerity of my communicants, but without spending a huge. amount of time on such a project how does one critically analyse such controversial material? Th,re are some comments on the lesser·known zodiacs, whose validity is


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more debatable, but deserve no quick judgement. The Heavyweights The Glastonbury·Zodiac has been moderately well publicised nationally, but tl'free other zodiacs have been document.ed at length in occult maga·.. zines. These are known as the KingstonUpon·Thames Zodiac,mappedJ1YMary. Caine (who has also dor'1e sterlinll1¥ork;,. ···'·'jfn·;'···*r' on die Glastonbury ZOdiac); l'umpsalnt Zodlac;inWales, the subject of lengthy writings by the late Lewis Edwards; and the versica·piscis shaped Nuthampstead Zodiacin the Sky Counties documented by marine biologist Nigel Pennick. Without maps and extensive correlative philogistic data, the reader is asked to regard these as being ex tremeIy probable designsaAd is encouraged to. follow·the bibliographic references. But there are plenty of other contenders for affirmation. So, let me introduce: Other Possibilities Mike Collier has done some preliminary mapping of figures in SUSSEX and admitted in a letter to me that his 'only reason for suspecting a Zodiac seems very slight now'. However, he notes Argos Hili is roughly where Cancer would lie, with the stellar ship Argo Navis. He points out associative animal names and adds, '.1 do know a lot of the area and am convinced there is something important here'. Philip HeseltOn posited a zodiac in the HOLDERNESS district of East Yorkshire and published preliminary findings. in The Ley Hunter. This example, however, if verifted, would be unique as it is upside down. Jimmy Goddard mapped a Virgo figure around WEYBRIDGE, Surrey, and on checking with Mary Caine that it was not associated with the Kingston Zodiac, was informed that she had found a 'shadow zodiac' within her circle: The BANBURY ZODIAC has been mapped by Peter Dupemex and·also in Oxfordshire is a,series of figures·around SINODUN HILL, including a magnificent rabbit deJineated by Miss Kathleen Elsmire. More figures ina circle lie across the Cl1ilternsarl(j ';., weresug·te!!!!y 10"athafl.J:l0'!!<;;:' i;;':, o;0·r·1··'·Ilt,···",·, .: " . ZODIAC discovered by Jim Klmmls. A disappointing, to me at least, set of figures were mapped out on ANGLE. SEY by Rick Massey. In the North East, in addition to those mentioned, I suspect one centred upon MOUNT PLEASANT, south of Yarm in Cleveland; Scotland, I've heard has zodiacs near Edinburgh and Glasgow though I've yet to positively identify either (but it is possible that there is a MIDLOTHIAN ZODIAC pivoted on Sclad Law with Arthur's Seat in Sagittarius and Roslin in Scorpio). Sir Alexarfder Ogstan, in a serious·archaeological work, noted that the form of the HOWE OF CROMAR resembled a man's head facing westwards, and I've also had


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suggested to me that BENACHIE in this county of Aberdeenshire may be a zodiacal centre. Additional to Lewis Edwards's Pumpsaint Zodiac, John Michael has been working on a PRESCELL Y ZODIAC, in Wales. Summing Up There is not space to attempt a detailed evaluation of the terrestrial zodiac phenomenon; but I would insist that the Somerset Giants should be seen in the wider context of a nationwide system of geomantically·precise features. It is Comparison of this illustration with the previous one shows how the figure is delineated. , too eatly·to formulate general theories on formation, datil'lg and distribution of the astrological forms, but I hold a personal conviction that the shapes are a ' matter of cosmic engineeringinvolvil'l! ..·Partuniv·rsal forces, higher entities, .. andman'$ subconscious and consciOUs . '" that a national pattern will be diSGern·ible eventually. I forecast a great upsurge in this, aspect of the Mysteries. Terrestrial Zodiacs: a Complete Bibliography Books Ashe;Geoffrey 'The Finger and the Moon' (Panther, 1925); Glastonbury. Bord, Janet & Colin 'Mysterious Britain' (Paladin, 1974) Glastonbury. . Maltwood, K 'A Guide to Glastonbury's Temple of the Stars' (1924; reprint·ed J ames Clarke & Co, 1964): Air View Supplement to former (London 1937); 'The Enchantments of Britain', (Victoria, British Columbia, 1946);, 'Itinerary of the Somerset Giants' (Victoria 1946); , Michell, John 'The View Over Atlantis' (Abacus 1973). Glastonbury. 'Pennick, Nig·'Nuthampstead Zodiac' (Th' Endsville Press, 1972); 'Ley and Zodiacs' (Fenris·Wolf, 1975). Roberts, Anthony' Atlanlean Traditions in Ancient Britain' (Unicorn, 1974) Glastonbury . Reiser, Oliver L. 'This Holyest Erthe' (Perrenial Books, 1974) Glastonbuiy. Screeton, Paul 'Quicksilver Heritage' (Thorstons, 1974) Most zodiacs. Trench, Brinsley Ie Poer 'Men Among Mankind', (Spearman, 1962) Glastonbuiy. Articles 'A Night on the Glastonbury Zodiac' John Eyre (Torc 13) 'The Glastonbury Zodiac' JOhn Michell (Torc 11) 'Pictures In The Sky/Pictures On The Earth' Paul Scree ton (Torc 6) Most zodiacs. 'The Return Road From Avalon', 'Why I Love Glastonbury', 'Why


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. Is Glastonbury the Cradle of the ' Future', 'The Countenance of the. Future' C.D.F. Shepherd (respective·_. Iy Torc 4, 3, 5,6). 'A Hunter's Tale' Tony Wedd (The Ley Hunter 2 (TLH) reprinted in 'Time ' , For the Time To Come Together" booklet) Glastonbury. 'Temple of the Stars' Geoffrey Moor·house (The Guardian) Talk with the Caines. 'The Glastonbury Giants' Mary Caine (Prediction, series begins Dec 1968). 'The Nuthampstead Zodiac' (two versions) Nigel Pennick (Cambridge Voice, series 3, No 2; TLH 11). 'The Welsh Temple of the Zodiac' Lewis Edwards (Research Vol 1, Nos 2/3/4, reprinted TLH15/16/ 17). Pumpsaint. 'One of the Durham Zodiacs' Tom Cole (TLH 14). Stanley. 'The (Tentative) Fleet Shot Hill Zodiac' Paul Screeton (TLH 14). 'The Somerset Zodiac' Jimmy Goddard (TLH 18). 'Gypsy Lore, Zodiacs and Albion' (TLH 19). . 'An Unexpected Virgin' Jimmy Goddard (TLH 20). Surrey. , 'Straight Lines, Zodiacs and Antiqu, i!y' Ian Wright \TLH 22) Wandlebury area, Canbs. 'The Holderness Zodiac' Philip HeSelton (TLH 25). 'Is There A Kingston Zodiac?' Mary Caine (Prediction series 1971/2). 'Glaston and the Phoenix' Tina Benham (Torc 2) 'Cambridge Magic' Anthony Roberts , (Arcana 1) Nuhampstead. ' 'The Glastonbury Giants'·Mary Caine, (qandalf's Garden 3) magazine on terrestrial zodiacs. Anyone. interested is free to drop a line (please, • 'enclose >a.e.) to P. Scree ton, 5 Egton Drive, Seaton Carew,. Hartlepool, Oeve··". land, TS25 2AT. Editor's Note John Dee and the Glastonbury Zodiac This is one of those references that have gained spurious 'authority' by being quo·d a lot We have researched it quite thoroughly, and have concluded that it is probably false. The original appearance of the reference is in John Dee by Richard Deacon, alias Donald McCormick, published in 1968, in "';'ich the author purports to refer to Dee's Diaries. Mary CaIne, the leading researcher into the Glastonbury terres·'trial zodiac, asked McCormick for th. exact refereflCll, having failed to find it in any of the librariss of Dee's work. McCormick 'told her he had 'lost his notes·This could be consirkred possi but Geoffrey Ashe relates that inano of McCormick's booles, on Jack The Ripper, he also presen·'startling no., evidence'. But ...nan the Sunday Times II think) asked him for the source of these revelations, he had similarly 'lott his nores'. We


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therefore regard the refarrmtes as spurious, and advise researchers to ignore it in future. The earliest reference to ii Zodiac at Glastonbury .... could find was in F. Bligh Bond's Gate of Rememb·nce ,,' IBlack .... ", 1918, pp 147·148), but thi ' appHn to btl a refsrenctJ to a Zodiac ' CNWd on the ffOOl' of tha Mary 01.".,. at the Abbey, and derives from Blitll ' Bond's 0,"" research and tha writingr of the historian, Willia.mof Mali We would like to thank Mary Caine for: supplying illustrations for this article:


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• • • • • • • • • • • • ReviewsMoney and M·d.icine. Health, Money and the National Health Service. Unit fer the Study of Health Policy 6Opp.6Op including UK postage from UHSP, 8 Newcomen SL, London SEll YR .. The contents of this small, cheap nostrum, taken literally, will prevent 80% of current diseases. The cure is drastic, consisting of a complete change In the structureill1d emphasis of 0'" society, but will be painless except for those with a vested interest in the present .. t·Up. In I ... than 60·the authors, '·an interdisciplinary team ••• part of the Depart. ment of Community Medicine, Guy's Ho.pital Medical School", .... ss the effectiveness of the N.H.s. compared with the health services of other industrialised counuies, its dependence on the rest of the U.K. economy, the stateof the U.K. economy and the irrelevanCe of conventional economic thinking to our pcesent situation. In particular they are scathing about the continuous growth policy and the u .. lessness of G.N.P. as a measure of anything worthwhile. They show that the high·tecnnology, high·science, last minute cure approach to health, that Is hospital services,has reached the point where increasing expenditure produces a rapidly diminishing or negligible increase in average life expectancy. The efficacy of such a myopic approach is questionable for three main reasons. One; lower death rates from infectious diseases often result from imporv!ng living conditions before widespread immunisation begins. Two; ten of the most prevalent diseases in developed Countries are uncommon in underdeveloped countries. Three; disease specific mortality rates vary by area·implying that many diseases are preventable when better understood. It may be wiser to spend money preventing the need for the cure than to perfect the aJre! Botlol defending the N.H.S's share of the crumbling national cake and 'sitting tight', that is making the least painful cuts while . waiting for the economy to improve (?), is to accept the existing, implicit philosophies of the health service, UniOnS 'fight' the cuts; Health Authorities such as West Essex make selective cuts, geriatric or maternity care for the knife? . By contiast theauthors then oudine the characteristics of a health·promoting economy·reduction of stress, involv&ment of the poplliation in health care, . reducing the mystique of medicine, elimination of the promotion of anti·• health products icigarettes,·cars, platform shoes, etc.), and rationalisation of the economy to reduce dependence on frivolous or redund'ant imports. The Galactic AII·<:Oriiwprize for " '. understatement goes to the authors for this: "A selective and purposeful pattern of growth would allow us to sustain a meaningful and quite adequate 'standard . of living' while avoiding many of the irrationalities and economic nonsenses associated


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with indiscriminate growth. Such an economic framework would, however, necessitate other changes of a perhaps more controversial nature. ,. (my emphasis). Second prize goes for this gem:·"We realise, of course, that the chances of obserVing such fundamental changes in the short term are not high." You said a mouthful there, chaps. As the concentration of facts and ideas 'is pretty fierce I would like to see an exPinded version. Dedicated A.T'ers and social reformers will be familiar with most of the arguments and references, but for preaching to the unconverted the' ideas need much more room to develop. Some of the references, particularly newspapers, are not easy to find and should have been more extensively quoted. Another, minor quibble is that there is not enough emphasis on allowing the institutionalised N.H.S. machinery to atrophy because it's just not needed any more. Those criticisms apail, this pamphlet should cause quite a few people to think hard about where health care is going, and whether it is possible to have real health for the masses in a consumer society. Dave KannerWarm Comfort The Energy Question, Gerald Foley.·Pelican Original. 344 pages. 90p. Gerry.Foley has put together a comprehensive gu ide to the various energy sources, conversion, analysis and conservation techniques, including sections on conventional fossil and nuclear technology and the 'ambient' alternatives. If you need a simple, cheap, text·book style introduction, then this is it·but it raises few questions, despite its tide .. Rather It argues for moderation in all things. Let's explore nuclear power c·lmly arid slowly, and let's not believe all you hear from the Utopian alternative technologists. Let's rather get down to plannIng a viable pattern of energy use and conservation. . Essentially it Is a comforting book .. :. ideal for brJcflniplatform speakers and city planners, filled wi!h measured common sense, rather than rhetoric. Personally, however, I missed the analytic terseness of O1apman's Fuel& Paradise and lIie aggressiveness of Bayle's Living on the Sun. And I can't accept Foley's dismissal of AT as having a 'negligible' potential contribution to 'sustaining life in cities such as London. Paris, New York, Stockholm or Moscow'. Rather it is the other way around .... the potential for advanced technology, of the sort generated by and for. capitalist (and state capitalist) societies for sustaining anything approaching an equitable and reasonable life·style is increasingly becoming negligible .... Dave Elliott Comfrey' Lunch Comfrey; Past, Present and Future, Lawren« D. Hills. Faber and Faber. 253


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pp. £3.00. If there was a crop that once established produced fifty tons per acre per yea[ and thus far out·performed maize, lucerlile, rape, kale and even soya bean as a source of digestible protein' for livestock, wouldn't it be grown extensively? , Surprisingly little grown, comfrey is such a crop. ' For instance comfrey can replace up to 30 per cent of the feed of pigs. Horses thrive on a diet of comfrey and reduced oats or wheat cavings. This saves lots of money as hay is only needed in winter. prevents scour in foals and calcium and phosophorous shortage in mares in foal. Comfrey is a low fibre. high protein, high mineral feed ideal far poultry who need a low fibre diet. In symbiotic manner the straw, wood shavings; chicken droppings, . etc. in used chicken deep·litter provide the readily availaole nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash that comfrey needs while' , poultry love to be fed comfrey. The . vitamin content of their eggs, particularly vitamins A and B'20 is much higher than ·that of battery farm eggs. This book·is the story of comfrey and Lawrence Hills efforts to bring it to the , . attention of the agricultural .... orld. governments and the general public throtlgh the Henry Doubleday Association he founded. He thoroughly. methodically, modestly searches out the facts about, comfrey from o,",r a century of confusion.··For instance comfrey, species name SY{llphytum Peregrinum, has upwards of thirty different varieties including the wild comfrey, S. Officinale, long known to herbalisl5. But the highest yielding comfrey was Russian Comfrey; a rare F 1 hybrid cross of caucasian S. Asperrimum, and S. Officinale imported from Russia in' 1871 as a soUrce of gum for stamps! Genetics still being unaccepted the danger of a hybrid's performance degenerating with successive generations, unle·s propagated vegetatively, was not realised. Now only inferior descendants from the hybrid remain. Named after Backing where the author founded the Comfrey Research Association in 1954, these distinct varieties now have1cultivar' names; Backing No.1, BockingNo. 2,etc. This inery important as each B9"king, 42' , '·¥.:.:.::·..... '·" ,·t··, ... "··b has a. different yield, amino·'atid, mineral, vitamin, carbohydrate, and fibre contenL Common hedgerow S. Officinale has , a very Jaw yield. Comfrey gathers up minerals from up to eight feet into the ground and is a good natural fertiliser. Unfortunately the section of the book on the medical uses of comfrey is dated. However, it does emphasise that comfrey is unusual among plants in that it contains vitamin B,,, and is richer'in vital amino·acids, including lysine and tryptophan, than many . imported nuts. Vegans take note. So far all could be roses, but Lawrence , Hills carefully explains why comfrey is not the panacea that it at first seems. For if a means of making, it more palatable could be developed malnutrition in poor partS of the world could soon be alleviated. Unfortunately this has not appealed to companies interested in. making large profits and so has been ne8lected. , ·The many prol?lems of com*!y mainly·'stem from lac:k of


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COlllll_ Sense kl\OW·,. ledge of the way·of"cultivatiOl It The' problems Include the need to caiefully select the highest yielding plants for root: cuttings, the expense of establishing it ; and the unresolved problem of making : hay from it. ; If it is to be grown on an ecologically , sound basis it should be paired with , a nitrogen·fixing legume in a manner not; yet devised. Here a big problem is can·,; vention. l:arge sums of money are spent i breeding hybrids of accepted crops, { inventing pesticides etc. Introducing j a new, organic farming method to 1 farmers needs the backing of agricultural ministries and agencies. I Comfrey could be a very cost com··,petitive 'organic' farming crop. But un feasible farming meth'ocIs are develop economics may still force farmers to u 33ri'buslness methods to provide proteilin en masse. ' ," 1 Dave SmithWind,Theory and Practice The Generation of E/ectffclty bY·/ndpower; E.W. Golding. E. and F.N. Span, h·.;r··back £6.00. . en; paperback £4.50.This standotd worl< on windpower technology:has been out of print rot nearly'tWenty Y031S SO its reissue is a welcome and·ifIcant development. It was written in the early fifties when energy prospecn for Western Europe were bleak and there was considerable Interest in harnessing renewable energy sources. Subsequently cheap Middle Eastern oil supplies and the era of nuclear euphoria combined to divert attention frorr this desirable field of scientific research and it is only.!n recent years that interest has returned.It is a thorough and unimpeachable . volume, covering in, rigorous detail yet accessible style every·major aspect of windpower theory. Its particular strength is the eight chapters given over to meteorology. geography; wind behaviour and power profiles: here the reacler will find a complete analysis of wind, what it does"and what it can beinade todo.' There follow chapters onAC.lierierators, _ propeller. design,.5IIIall·5QJe powerp)ants, large·scale power plants, and cost·benefi analysis. Anyone who has digested the', contents of this book will be in a positi. to do useful work. . It is not by any means a dawdle. It de technically with a technical subject and, although an engineer would find it easy. enough a non·speciallst .hould expect Ie do some heavy' slogging before it starts , making'sense. But that ought not to de! ·anyone from ""king the effort: the ' sooner elementary technical understanding is part of the national heritage the sooner we can all stop worrying about Peop.!e's Science. In order to develop an efficient and useful windmill a numerate appreciation of wind behaviour and generating machinery is essential, otherwise a windmill bu i1der would have no conception of whether his or her machine was efficient. If you had a 10ft diameter windmill running in a


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15 mph wind, for example, it has a theoretical power output of over 800 watts, so if your machine just manages to light up a 13 watt fluorescent tube, (which might/oak impressive), the plain fact is that it isn't very good at all. Nor would it be if it took two days to . charge up a 300 amp·hour'ilattery. The question of wind behaviour in ·a particular locality is crucial. Although the average ('prevailing') windspeed for a site might be, say, 10 mph, and although this might blow for five days out of every seven, the greater part of the wind's energy is available in the stronger 'energy winds' which blow on the other two. This ·is because the power in the wind is proportional to the cube of the windspeed, 'so a 20 mph wind has eight times the power of a 10 mph wind. Armed with these and similar insights, including the theory of prqpeller i1esign. it should be posSIble for someone to design a machine to take )lCcount of the particular wind conditions of the locality so as to obtain as mucll power as possible. Although The Generation of Electricity by Windpower is the most complete work available on the subject it has limitations due to the preoccupations of the age in which it was written. Back in the fifties wind power enthusiasts had grandiose ambitions for their subject which nowadays look rather quaint: in particular they conCeived of windmills in terms of megawatt capacities supplying the CEGB on the same basis as oil·or coal·fired power stations. Today the emphasis is on smaller units designed to supply individual homes or communities, usually in the context of more frugal energy·use, and this is an aspect which Golding devoted relatively slight attention to. His cost·accountancy, while introducing ·a useful criterion of judgement, is strictly limited to the cash nexus and an industrial mode of production. Strict costaccountancy is not of the greatest importance; it does not provide an algorithm for building a whole new way of life. The great strength of the current upsurge of interest in windpower is that it breaks through theronventional barriers of cost·benefit analysis: it is an outlet for people's enthusiasm·it has potential for scrap or recycled technology and it runs very cheaply on unpaid' activity. But whatever its slight limitations this book is essential for serious practitioners of the art. It draws together a fund of knowledge which is simply' not available elsewhere, which should be at every radical technologist's fingertips. Until it is we shall all remain well and truly hooked onto the Grid. Martyn Partridge Whirlwind·Romance Journal of Metereo/ngy. Editor, G.T. Meaden, Cockhill House, Trowbridge, Wilts, BA14 9BG .. 50p monthly, £5.50 per year UK,overseas rates on


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application. This is a delight. Terence Meaden started it vter retiring from a career as a professional metereologist, as be perceived a gap in the coverage of the subject by the sem i·official Metereological Magazine and by Weather. The gap was common,·in the observational sciences like metereology, astronomy, and botany; there was no way for heaps of valid amateur work to appear in the literature except via ephemeral local societies from where it often sunk without traGe. The material and its presentation are both goodj the several thousand amateur metereologists of Britain are clearly well informed and' keen on observation. The content, while not filled with mathematical theol)", is a glorious mix of good ideas; hardware ideas, for .example 'On the value of radio·teleprinter links to amateur metereologists, historical metereological happenings, (some positively Fortean), and the proceedings of T.O.R.R.O. This is the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation devoted to investigating the largely unknown incidenc,e of these unusual phenomena in Britain and is DL Meaden's own special interest. There is also discussion of recent weather conditions. As an example of an amateur publisher taking on and more than beating the profe·si<lnals at their own game, Journal of Metereology is a lesson for us all. To anyone interested in metereology it is essential reading.'Martin Ince Transcending' Facts Transcendental Meditation: The Technique, Peter Rus·ell. Routledge and Kegan Paul. £3.75. I had hoped, from what I know of Pete Russell, to find here more of a personal appraisal of T.M. and the movement that promotes it. I t is still probably the best book on the subject:·Jack Forem', was too propagandist (Undercurrents 12) and Anthony Campbells' are very difficult indeed unless you are already mystically inclined. The book begins with an excellent description of the technique, with its history, which has to be about as far as one carl go without teaching it; that has to be done orally. I certainly found th is useful in clarifying a few points. He discusses other, related techniques to establi·h exactly where T.M. stands. To satisfy those who demand some 'objective proof' ij1at something actually happens he reviews, fortunately fairly briefly, the results of·the experimentation bn the physiological and psychological effects of meditation. Eventually these experiments may help uS'distinguish between worthless and useful techniques. A number "f the book's assertions, like those on the nature of the mind, and to some extent on the ability to dissolve accumulated stress, an·,not stientifically corroborated With psychological so·called·science in the state it is everyone is competent to


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offer their own theory of mind and so this should not worry us. Right the way through this part Pete Russell uses a question·answer technique to counter the anticipated criticisms, this makes for a tight style leaving open few cracks in the argument. . In the next section, the higher states of consciousness, beyond waking,·dreaming and sleeping, that are attainable through regular meditation are described and discussed. At this point intellectual reasoning must always break down. We can characterise a fourth state of consciousness as mind without thoughts, conscious·ness'i·self, Being etc. However, to . identify this Pure Self with the Absolute or unmanifest, from which unfolds creation and intelligence, is a step which cannot be taken on paper. Ultimately this can only be validated in the experience of each individual for himself: Similarly, the fifth state of consciousness, . attained when all accumulated stress has . .been dissolved, appears paradoxical since 43·:_f·it comprises the fourth slate alongside the ordinary slates. These, one would think, should preclude each other. He then tries to put all this into per·speGtive with the Humanist and Trans·personal schools of psychology, epitomised by Abraham Maslow and Robe(1O Assogloll respectively. He compares the effeGts of meditation with selfactualisation as defined by Maslow and the self·transcending aspects of the se<:ond school. Obviously the progression to a fully enlightened person goes far beyond scoring high on 'Shostram's :PersonalOrientatlon Inventory' and this 'is brought out in his attempt to convey the difficult concept of Unity Consciousness (seventh state). "The balancing of opposites by an enlightened man is not a compromise of oppositesj it is a true synthesis of opposites ... intellectual and intuitive; scientific and artistic; contrete and abstra.c:L U I believe that the comparison between the two models, evolution of consciousness and Woody's culture theory, is not entirely accidental. Insociety, individual·ity and co·operation are the opposites that are seen most to conflict They fuse at the apex of Woody's model, where the line of no·""thority meets the line of noalienation in sociality. Meditation as described by Pete Russell and others ' claims to promote a true synthesis of these opposites in the development of ·'consciousness. This is relevant to the final part called the 'Ccnsciousness Revolution' where he admits that some fundamental changes in society will come about as a result of the mass practice of T.M.; viz: "We will riot be able to build a non·exploitative, holistic, &:ologicaJ ethic into our policies unless it is also built into our awareness .. We need to know it organically, at the heart of our being, rather than just cerebrally as part of our reasoning. " Unfortunately this is about as far as he goes. I am 'SUre he would like to go further but as a teacher of the technique he feels eonstrained to follow the strongly apolitical party line. The implications for society of a large number of people meditating m.y be vety profound. The time is now due for


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someone, probably outside a movement like the Maharishi's, to present the case for' meditation to those interested In social change of various kinds in such a way as to answer the question: 4'15 meditation a Technology of Liberation, both inner and outer, or is it a bolster to the status' quo?".An answer to this question is needed for those who feel that T.M. may assist bomb makers and capitalists to realise their aims without internal stres·And for those who feel that, like many religions, T.M. helps to maintain the complacency of large numbers of people. Similarly it would be interesting to know if the sharpness with which many people who meditate perceive their responsibilities and relative position in the world is due to their meditation or'due to their personalities. The complete answers to these questions are not to be found in this·book. Pete GlassHappy Birthday Birth·Ithout Violence, F. Leboyer. Wildwood House. £2.95. l06pp . Does it matter whether b.bies saeam or smile at birth? Experts say conscious .war... ; ness only comes as it grows older. Dr. Leboyer disagrees. A foetus in the womb c;m i sense light and d ... k, sounds ... d movements but is protected from the extremes out·, ide. So we should do altwe c;m to make the change from womb to world as gentle as : possible. Without the stress and trauma of modern birth. 1·For conSIder, in the civilised hospitals of the West one is born straight from the dark, warm, wetness of the womb into the full glare of floodlights and the hurly·burly of this world. The first action taken against us, as babies, was a slap on the back whilst hung upside down by a foot, our umbilical lifeline severed. No wonder babies scream in rage, bewilderment and , pain. What Dr. Leboyer proposes should happen is that the room should be in semi·darkness, and very quiet. Immediately after birth the ch i1d is placed face, down on its mothers stomach, its ear near her familiar heartbeat, while , still attached to the umbilical cord. Th is is cut after about five minutes. The mother should touch or even stroke the child so it does not feel lost and firmly but gently love it. A couple of healthy cries and then the' baby calTies ' on breathing normally. The next step is to gently raise It into a sitting position and cradle it. 'Then place it, still supported, in a basin of water at body temperature. Once again, as in the womb, it becomes weightless. It relaxes, opens its eyes, enjoys itself and smiles! , After the bal1y has moved its nmbs, it is exploririgly removed from the bath, then returned there, and so on. Gradually it 'becomes used to the new environment. Then it is wrapped in wool, cotton and love,and laid on its side, secure in this . world.' , , At present this style of natural childbirth is probably best carried out at home rather than in large hospitalLTime is heeded for ttie birth to be natural and unhurried. Complicated deliveries must still take place in hospitals. Even here the environment could be


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made less harsh. D" Lebayer was promoted Chef de Olnique in the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1953. He has been working out his ideas on birth without violence for th·past ten years. His descriptions of birth, both orthodox and natural, are almost poetic. Each action, each stage of the birth and each minute feeling of the child are beautifully and tenderly explained. The tr.nslation has b"'ll1 rem.rkably • well done. In black and white, the illustrations show the differences between birth with fear and violence and this natural way which instils confidence and h<lppiness in the child from the very' beginning of its life. The more I read this book, the more I discover about life, feeling and emotions. I am growing to love this book.Barbara Kern Dowse it yoursel Principles & Practice of Rod/esthesia, Abbe Mermet. Watkins Publishers. 23 £2.25. . Dowsing: The Ancient Art of Rhabdomancy, Robert H. Leftwich. Thorsons. 64pp. SOp. The Power of the Pendulum, T.e. Let, bridge. R.K.P. 140pp. Hard cover £3.2 Dowsing, Tom Graves. Turnstone Boo 160pp. £1.75. The art of dowsing, part science, part artistic sensitivity and awareness,·offers' several different approaches to the wri intent on spreading his knowledge of subject These approaches are well covered in these books. Dowsing is not just water·divining, though sometimes referred to as search for hidden water or minerals with the or pendulum. Technically known as radiesthesia, it can be defined simply 'sensitivity to radiations', The terms often interchanged. Without doubt the classic 'textbook' approach to radiesthesia, including its medical aspects, is presented by the Abbe' Mermet. This book, first published in French in 1935 and translated into English in 1959, covers the field in a thoroughly scientific way through theory, experiment and example. You can be pretty sure that the aspect of dowsing that interests you is in there, if you can only get in and find it! When you locate the item you are looking for you can be sure of a good crop of hypotheses validated by experiments with thoroughly objective titles) like Branly's Experiment, the Prism Experiment, the Solar Ray Experiment, etc. Mermet was no doubt of the opinion that radiesthesia could be studied successfully by anyone. This view is not shared by Robert Leftwich. He was walking along the road one day and saw a dowser in action looking for underground pipes at the side of the road. Leftwich asked if he could have a go. The rods practically 'leapt out of his hand when he tried them. So when he says "It Is believed that twenty·five per cent of the population are potential dowsers", he is


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presumably referring to people who are 'naturals' like himself, whereas many dowsers who have had to learn from scratch would say that it is like riding a bicycle·everyone can do it once they've got the knack. ' Leftwich's book is of necessity brief; it is not as practical as it couid be. It covers the theoretical and historical aspects of dowsing quite interestingly. . • Unfortunately it's little help in learning to dolt. T.C. Lethbridge's book is altogether in a different class. As always with Lethbridge, it is original in its approach and is absolutely undogmatie. He always made a point of saying that he only presented his personal opinion on his discoveries, and ,did not mind in the least if they were interpreted differently. The present book, prepared from Lethbridge's notes after his death in 1971, is about the 'higher planes"of existence, about time and about space. It also describes how the dowsing pendulum can be used to investigate these areas. It is much more than a book on dowsing: it is the concfUsion of many years work on E.S.P., the Occult, Archaeology and Physics. l'hough too complex for the beginner, all Lethbridge's books are worth reading. I have left the most practical till last. Mermet is fine if you are studying for a dowsing examination. Lethbridge is valuable for the research student. But for plain old 'Teach Yourself Dowsing' nothing can beat Tom Graves' book, simply titled Doming. This is a no·thrills, oo:\Jseless·theory book. Graves is saying "Why discuss the theory? Let's just get out and do it, and ask why later." This is . lust what he does. Clearly and informa., tively presented and illustrated, easily accessible, the straightforward, nononsense style of this book makes it far . and away the best I have Seen. I first met Tom Graves at Comtek in 1975. He must have taught hundreds of people to use bent coathangers as dowsing rods and find hidden pipes. The only people who couldn't were those prejudiced by their own expectations, and even they were often convinced,by the example of others. His book should teach you to dowse as easily as he could teach you personally. Richard ElenWind, Power Politics' Food from Windmills, Peter Fraenkel. I.T.D.G. 68pp. A4. £3.00. From IT Publications, ' 9 King Strett, London WC2. ' At first glance this looks like another purely technical treatise:·a detailed account of a successful attempt by the American Presbyterian Mission'to provide wind·powered irrigation for the Geleb people who live near the Omo Mission station in South' Western Ethiopia. But Peter Fraenkel succeeds in illuminating a lot more than just the technical, agricultural and economie problems inherent in the project, and their solutions as perfe<:ted by the engineers: he also makes clear that, "the social and cultural side of applying this technology may be more critical In effecting


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the success of it than seeking technical perfection." On the surface. of course, the solutions must have seemed fairly obvious. The Gelebs needed a means of irrigation to' enable them to practise year·round ' cultivation and so alleviate their chronic seasonal food shortages. A few American Dempster multi·blade wind pumps had • already been installed successfully to pump river water along irrigation channels to vegetable plots and fruit trees. But the Dempster machines'main disadvantage was their cost: 2000 Ethio'eian Dollars, (about SUS 1000) ead1: SO 'Ted Pollock and the Reverend Robert Swart of the Mission s;aff decided to build their own windpumps, drawing their inspiration from the sail·type wind machines used extensively for irrigation in Crete. They finished their fi·t Cretan mill in June 1974, and·ew ones have been produced at a rate of about one a month since then. Fraenkel describes, in meticulous detail, , the mode of consuuction, the design cOnsiderations and how the mills perform in practice. . ' Locals wishlng to have a mill to irrigate their land pay the mission $Eth Sa year for 20 year.s. A sum which apparently is enough to deter the non·serious farmer, but which is nominal in relation to the $700·$800 finished cost of each machine. They 'are given a complete kit of parts, including all necessary tools. The Mission also helps with the work of installation. So far, so good. At this point politics raises its ugly head. Ownership of river·bank land is not equitably distributed among the Gelebs. So if a person who farms land away from the river bank wants to use a wind·powered pump to irrigate his fields, he has to get permission to erect his windmill from someone who owns a stretch of river bank. Such permission is not always forthcoming, at least one owner has tried ,to' charge a 'rent! for the use of his site_ This problem,.Fraenkel confesses, "seems to be one of the most serious constraints to the expansion of the programme." The Ethiopian Government's attempts at land reform have not, it seems, been' enforced in such remote areas as the Omo Mission Station. Until they are, and until , the introduction of a co·operative or collective system of ownership of land, property and natural resources, it seems clear that well·meaning attempts to solve the despefate food problems of Third World regions are fated to have; at best, limited success. More than that, such ' attempts run the risk of accentuating prevailing inequalities by increasing the wealth..,arning ability of the already well·off, and leaving the underprivileged without any means of bettering their ioL The lesson of Fraenkel's book is that Intermediate Technology, on its own. is often just another 'technical fix'·an attempt to engineer a solution to problems whose roots lie far deeper than tech'n,ology, in the distribution of a nation's wealth and power. Dr Ef. Schumacher and his staff at the Intermediate Technology


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Development Group are fond of telling us all that "small is beautiful": itls about time they made it clear whether they are talking about small capitai ism or small socialism.Godfrey Boyle' Magic in the Garden The Findhorn Garden, Findhorn Com·munity. Turnsto.e & Wildwood. 192pp. £2.9.5. . . This is the story of a 'New Age' com·munity founded on the sandy ground of a caravan park on the windswept south coast of the.Moray Firth. It will be familiar to anyone who has read The Secret Life of Plants, (Undercurrents 6). It h·s gained significance not merely by being an experimental organic gardening community J but from the founders' claims of being in touch with the spirits of the plant world under whose guidance and with whose co·operation an inhospitable piece of land is gid to have produced prodigious fruit and vegetables. This is a pictorial account and a personal record by the five main members of the communityJ a nicely packaged and presented book with 150 photographs that will look well on your coffee·table and will make a good talkingpoint. It is aimed at the general market so plenty will be found to whet the. intellectual appetite, but it will leave you wondering at all those unanswered qu·tions. Some will find this book and _ its subject simply objectionable, some will find it mildly interesting, hopefully some may be able to·put these ideas to some practical effect. Or maybe, as the rationaliser'inslde me says, .this is just a 'once and for all' story fitting a pattern all too common in 'New Age·themes. . The central activity of Findhorn has to a large extent moved away from the garden toward an organisation propagat·ing ideas. The community has acquired a nearby hotel and is creating a luniversity', For me, though, the chief interest is in the original community and in any further such experiments: one isolated example does not offer much ho.pe of salvation. The tact is that colossal plant' were grown in sand on a bleak and windswept tract of land, and it is claimed·that the experiment involved cO'operation with Wirits of the plant kingdgm who insisted, as a precondition for co·. ·operation, a positive attitude on the part of the communards towards the plants and a willingness to reform themselves and their. practices. Withdrawal of contact was more than once intimated if certain tendencies persisted; for example, u/lllecessary pruning, careless cutting and even, in one case, access to·what was a wild part of the garden. . But before anyone has ideas of the wider potential of this experiment, another pre,ondition for SUccess seems to have been years of spiritual training to. make contact possible, added to which the community did a


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great deal in terms of comppsting and other conventional PVlctices to help the garden along. It all leaves me, and most readers of the book I fancy, with a feeling of "Yes, very nice; but what prospects does it offer?" And the answer seems to be. none for a long time, at least in the absence of widespre, abilities of the kind the communards claim to have. Maybe those of us interested or hopeful in 'New Age' ideas should accept there will be no other practical offerings in our lifetimes and go back to our theoretical speculations. Only nabody ever changed the world t. wayFrancis BrookeHouses for People Housing: An Anarchist Approach, Colin Ward. Freedom Press. 182 pp. £1.25. There's one sentence in this collection of articles that sums up Colin Ward's approach: "The important thing about housing is not what it is.but what it does in people's lives". Housing is a field ruled bYllrofessionals, wrestling with their carboned rent·slips, their yardstick densities and their building regulations, intensely jealous of their scientific expertise and yet as prey to fashion as ·aniY;·. '·otograp hiC .. m. od eJ. What gets left out.; people. Colin Ward has been fi g for thirty years to let them back in _this book chronicles the struggle. T...,o fundamental principles have kept hilJl:Joirig th·ugti all the disillusionment of tJ!e post·war years: the creative power and·the initiative that is iatent in every human being, ready to be unlocked if only the means are provided, and the sense that there is no fundamental con·flict between 'them' and 'us', we are all in the same game of getting a decent place to live, . To my mind the most fascinating tale IS that of the plotlands of Laindon and Pitsea in South Essex. In one.of those arbitrary twists of fate a group of farmers took advantage of the coming of the rail·way in the 1880s to divest themselves of the sandy and gravelly land by getting East; Londoners drunk and selling them plots. As usual when land is parcelled in this ·way ownership receded into the mists of time and squatters as well as owners moved out in a steady stream to create England's own shanty tawn: Initially without roads, drainage or services, but by 1945 a fully functioning community of 25,000 peaple. After the war the area was designated a New Town. Now the houses built up over many years by the people that lived.in them can sell far more than those lovingly built to modern standards by Basildon Corporation! '. We've heard of the self·built squatter communities of the third world cities (Colin Ward, Undercurrents 10), but do people know how recently the same thing was happening in this c;.ountry? message is that ii can happen here again if we want it.enough. This is not just a baok for anarchists and housing


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professionals, (though they:·both need it!), but a tonic for all cynica urban dwellers worn down by the . seemingly inevitable greyness of our cities. A reverie of whatmight be, and ' a reminder that only we can create it. John ChaninRound·Up When the heat of summer slips away and ihe aged poor fall prey to hypo, thermia community action groups wishing to save energy, be socially useful, and compensate for capitalism's miserliness will need the Home Insulation Project Pack, £1 plus 20 pence p+p from F .a.E., Vane Tempest Hall,Gilesgate, Durham, DH1 1QG. Intended to encourage and cajole it aims to save people unnecessarily repeating groundwork alreadY done in Durham by providing details of how to run an insulation campaign. It contains information on obtaining ljob creation', industry and council money, gaining local confidence, practical insulation, sample publicity, the Great Heat Escape by Mike Hudson, and more. Libertarian Struggle recently renamed Anarchist Worker still has not succumbed to limited marxist solutions to the plight of the exploited and continues with inventive, searching news stories, even tongue in cheek humour! The bold tabloid form has been retained. Though inevitably heavy coverage of Ireland and the National Front, recent stories have included the Green Ban in Brum, nuclear power risks, tranquiliser addiction,.and a profile of Prime Minister Caliaghan.Ten pence monthly from good street sellers or A.W.A., 13 Coltman Street, Hull, HUmberside. P.M.S. Blackett by Bernard Lovell (Royal Society, 11 5pp, £4) is a rather straitlaced account of the life and work of the most distinguished of the prewar generation of radical scientists/Though most of the book is concerned with his work as a pure scientist the tale of his unsuccessful struggle against the wartime bombing offensive and the British atom' bomb and of his contributions to the "whitehot technological revolutibn" makes chastening, cautionary reading for those of today's uradical techn"ologists" who naively aspire to influence by taking tea with Tony Benn. ' . ,For our friends in France and Quebec, we have a useful book on solar energy: Le Chauffe EauSololre by Cabirol, Pelisou, and Roux (EDISUD, Aix·enProvence). This is a thorough do·ityourself guide to the con!ltruction of flatplate solar collectors. The basic principles are excellently presented in simple language with, for example, an interesting diagrammatic analysis of how much energy is reflected, absorbed, re·emitted or lost out the back of a typical collector. It is also sobering to note how much more sunshine they get over in France. The bulk of the book is devoted to describing the merits of various materials, construction details, and complete systems. Hardly a page passes without some clarifying diagram·there is even an appendix full of drawings of basic plumbing hardware and tools. So the technology is 'demystified', yet there is . enough detailed information to build fairly complex solar heating systems. Why isn't there an equivalent book in English yet?


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• • • • • • • • • • • • What's On Don't forget to go to COMTEIt, which will be held in Bath again, same place a. last year, Walcot SlIee·AuguSt 14·21. StaBs, lid .. shows. boat·trips. music and even AT, 10 take yourself plus campinggcal and make you.r way to a bisger and better COMTEK! IS ALTERNA'l1VE 1mINOLOGY AN ANSWER! is a holiday conference (%.·I1·' . ference, I/, work.·'I, leimre) from AUIUS. 21 .. 28 which is organised by the Future Studies Centre as a follow·up in depth to the 'INDUSTRY, TIlE COMMUNITY AND ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY'·onference held in Bradford·laat November, Thla one "will deal with the 1 3/4 million unemployed whose creative and inventive,talents are often ignored90, and \rill . take place at Court House; St. Davids, Dyfcd. Places are limited, at £10. all inclusive, and .families ue welcome. Camping facilities are also available. and you can go to individual .esGons. Book soon from P.S.c., 15 Kelso Road, Leeds, LS2 9PR. Tel Leeds (0532) 459365. ENl!RGlE EOUDINE ET HABITAT, and ENl!RGlE SOLAIRE ET HABITAT are two theoretical and practical courses. The couue 00 wind will ruD from August 1·14. the one on !O!ar energy froni August lSo29. They are to be held at a site about 4S km ea.t of Clermont Ferrand. For full detailJ Write to: Centre SYNTHESES, 64 Rue Taitbout, 75009 Paris. Telephone 526 15 49. THE INAUGURAL MEETING of the . COMMON OWNERSHIP ASSOCIATION will take place on Satwday aftemoo·September 18, at the Friends House, London., Everyone is welexnrae. and it you want to get more·details. write to: The Convener. Common Ownenhip Aaaociation, Scott Boider Company Ltd, WollaalDn, Wellinlborough, Northants. GROWING FOR SURVIVAL is the title of . a $·day COWie at Cowley·Wood Conservation Centre in·. Garden owners. allotment holden and prospective rma11·holden should benefit from the practical. tuition given on sua:essf'ul organic gowinl and ecoIoidcallY sound systeml of horticufture. The Centre'. . experience with small livestock. houle cows. . goats, beea ar>:I fish wID be aired, and pro·. fesiow outside tuition will be available. Write to John Butter, Cowley Wood COnseIVation Centre, Panacombe, North Devon. THE WORLD FOOD SITUArtON·its relevance to us and the Third World, iI the . subject of a one·da.y·ent on September·2S. It will take place at Wadhurrl, Sussex, and speake" include Dr. Lambert Mount, farmers Jim and Pauline Anderson, and Micbae1 Hawkes of Christian·Aid. There will be fibns, an exhibl·tion, vegetarian wholefood for sale and more.·ing fonns from Mrs Robson, Cheriton, The'Glade, Mayfield (Tel 3354), Susaex. Also on September 25, FOE are organlaing a national FOOD DAY, supported by Oxfam, Ouistian Aid, and the British Coonell of (]lUrcheL It is to coincide with HarYest Festival, and tbeaidea is to bring together a wide range of local groups concerned in some way about food·from those who purport to help the poor at home and overseas. to those who worry about the envUonplental·implicatio·of


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preaent food policies anc\ habits. FOE hope that people will formactlon COihmitteeiln each area which will organise the FuM Day in their own locality. Possible schemes include turning dere1ictland into allotments, garden·sharing, food cg..ops, recycling food waste or perhaps a Food. Fair, OJ' Food Conference. For more details, contact FOE it 9 Poland Street, Lo·don WIV 3DG, 01·437 61·1. LEAMINGTON SPA HEALTH FESTIVAL Ia to be 'held in the Pump Room Gardena, on September 4·5, and will be run by locala. The festival intenda to &how that health depends on evelo/thing in our lives·our work, food, sleep, etc, and will cover cooking, natural childbirth and relaxation. Af!:r the rostin! (and natural food banquet!) itla propoted 'that a celt1ral·ormation cenn.e concerning community . health and natunl medJcine be maintained in Leamington Spa. Contact Vivienne Brown, The Leamington Spa Good Earth Soc;ety, lOa Beauchamp Avenue, LeaminJtOD Spa. Warwicks. Te·0916 22388·Ml!IGAN CRAFT FAYRE begins Auguat 7, at Jollity Farm (sic), Crymych, Pombo. Dyfed. 1bere will belittle or no electric music. but musiciaru wiDing to play round camp fires or ill small performance areas are \Ve]come. Kites. . inflatable .. windmills, domes, dancers, poe ... downs and inventoµ welcome. Craft PeoPle come and sell your Vl8l'e1,·d demonstrate your art·if possible, and bring a cake for the kids' party. More details from Dave Herachel, T .... y·Bryn, Llan·Goedmore, Nr. Cardigan, Dyfed. 43rd CLEAN AIR CONFERENCE, October ll·15 in Edinburgh. Write to the National . Society fOI'C1ean Air, 136 North Stree·Brighton, for a conference brochwe. WOR!l:ERS CONTROL IN ACTION Ia the provisional title of a conference to be held in W. London on October 16 by SERA and the London Workerl' Control CQaordinating Com·mittce. This will feature the Lucas Stewards Roadshow, Audrey Wbe, Bill Jones, Dave Elliott and othera.. Further info from Tony Emerson of SERA, 312 Devonshire Road, London SE23. WORK·LEISURE·ANI;) THE CITY Ia ajoint·kend school organised by the WEA Environmental Studies Group·and the University of London Extra·Mural Dept. to be held at Plaw Hatch, Sussex, November 12·14. Places are limited, 80 if you want to enrol, write for details to Janet Catchpole, WEA Environmental Studies Group,S Chape1'Park Road, Addlestone, Swrey. There will be an ALTERNATIVE SOCIAUSM CONFERENCll/EVENT! IlAI'l'ENlNG, from Auguat 21·29 at Lau_ Hall, Castle Douglas, IGrkcudbrlghtahire.1t wiJI follow the Alternative Sodallam Pollatch in LondOn Auf"1t 13·15. Full detaila!newsletter etc. to Laurlelton Hall; IOnd SAE. .


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• • • • • • • • • • • • SMALL ADS .... SMALL ADS .... SMALL ADS ....2p per word up to 150 words' AOOIUNlDE§ YOUNG COUPLE with one chUd wish to join seIt·help community. Replies to CourtneJ::! 44 MaDOr Street, Hinckley. L.e cs. ECOLOGICALLY inclined male in late 30a interested in self8Ufflcienc:y seeks female withslmi1ar intuests to shue running of a eountry house on the Welsh couL Marr1a8e could be considered at a later date. Box No.HA. ESTABLISHED COMMUNITY emore members. Please wti·Ii as much information. as . Ie to Birchwood Hall. wrridp.m.M··.Wo·& COUPLE.ineulY3·ehil·en qed rl8in& 8 &; 10. seek otb.er f8mi1ies to discU8li Joint pUrchase of property and land in S. CUmbrla/N. Lanca. Partial selfsuff1ci.enc7 ideas, but half·halted .. yet! PIe .. wrlh Morpn tamDy Strickland HiD, Wither8laek .. Nt. Granle.ove:r·Sanda. CumDria.. ' WE ARE FORMING a sroup to purchase a larae country mansion _10 in 20 aeret. Requirements for part ownenhiP woUld be £1.000 per person p!us &. po, week up. bep. We will function as a 181Dicommune, survival by craft and mn1 induStriea. Write for details toBox'hC . MACHINERY FREA·gay. 32 Q.tenaive experience ships, boats . and heavy construction. seeks Job or cotnmunal situation in Which his intereBtlbabWties and procUvWes would·e used to best advantap. Intelllir:ent. literate, numerate, anarcbIc"loner seeki c:ompuUODS with slmilar lean1n.ls. Contact: Colin KeeL. Lea IUboux. Camine1. 46800 MontcuQ.. France. SHELTER PLEASE I Anyone interested. in looking after spartan country cottage in Scotland·with % acre. for year or more while own,ers are overseas? Barrie, Yonderton Cottaee.Gledbway.Knoek,bY Huntly. Grampian. Scotland. HOLIDAY in Geodesic·Domes, mela1 structured and PVC. In secluded orchard. aD. a nonaectarlan commune. Small Norfolk fariniDa to·20 miles coan.·6 mile, Cambriclle. Use of FinniSh·odg·pom.natwrun &arden. Spacibw.. aelf·caierlnl: accommodation for ab:. £3Gper week. Loui8e:·Crow Hall. Downham Market (3308), Norfolk. PUBLICAnONS S0CIALISM AND THE ENVmONMENT. Thi8 AGMbelieve. &hat our pUblications mould support thOR &rOupa within the Labour Movement who C:.8IIlPalIn for mwrovemen1l in the control worJCinI people have over their Invlromlient. . Two such aroup. are the Lucas • AerolPace Combine Shop Stewards Committee, who have drawn up their own·o·orate


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plan for the compan ch =·Produ.CtiOn_for need as • production for profit. and e Socialist EnvironemtnaJ. and Reaoureea Associatlon which has established workina eroup. into such areas as the fiwincl.n8 of public service. in a no lI'oWf;heconomy, Reeolni8in& the value of these we call upon our publicatiOnt to ave wide llubHeity to such IDitiativea. t The above was passed at the AGM of·Independent 'Labour Publications this lear. Labour Leader it the ILP 8 monthly paper send for a free·ple copy lzOm 49 Top Moor Side, Leeds LS11 9·W. VEGAN NEWSLETTER, produeec bi·monthly, f.elies larlely on :readers conmt.utions: wholefoods., ethics. diet. rell&ion. pacifism. eommunes. ecofOlJl':. poetry, recipe·alternative lifestyles, and more. Please &end stamp for cOpy to Malcolm Home 12 Wray . Crescent. London N4 3LP. LIST of out·of·print books on or&anic f·&,·denine. counVysid·nAtur history. crafts. literature. e • ll.vidlable for 88.e from Lifetime Books. 4b Ivanhoe Rd,·verpooll 7. SATELLITE NEWS: the weekly news bulletin of space activity·.. S"o.erlPtfons .£3 per year (52 .·'Il._oample eouJOIl. post ftM ... ruST PUBLlSHEO: SATEl4LITES 57·75: a complete lisiinIl dfall mccetlfulspacecmft launCh" between 4 October 1967 and 31 December 1975..u post tree. Geoffrey Il'alworth (U). 12 Barn Croft, Penwortham.. Preston PRl OSX. " SELF·SUFFICIENCY can become more than a catchphrase with Co·try1id.8 6: SmaU Stock JQumal, the establ1lhed monthly =zine for all who PrOduce DWldood.. SAE tor detalla._ or 461' for speebnen cOPY. to B. Gundrey. A18ton. CAB aLG. HARPWAlU! ' PELTON WATER WHEELS. Factory direct. Informative IUide. .1.00. BX124. Custer. WuhInlton 98240, USA. WORKDUTCH COUPLE + daulhter ll,i WJlDt to make & livinl for some ye8r(1) in U.K. Experience in %eDovatin&. buDdlnI, housekeepinl and how fo let alollJ with other people, some in IUden,inll:. lea·in AT". Wo moD.!T. (stili in people &. farm thin& we ve been doml tne.e t··",:li')' WElte to Peter Erika _ estnat 2k Qoiiin:·n. oUand. A DIFFERENT KIND OF lOB. Interested in new ways of workinl tolethel'? Want to have more MY in your own life? Don"t miss the .new issue (No.3) of In The Makinl. a airedor)' of proposed PrOductive projects. 1976 edition. )'rom. 22 Albert Road. Sheffield 8. Price 22» per copy,includinl post. SUbscriptions 6Op. PEMqNAL I'VE RECENTLY moved to Wendover. Bucks. It's :\.f,:tty town. but iI'there


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any loinl on in the reuonably near vlelni'y? ••• e. AT @<>Up.{food co·ops/free schools/FOE people. I've lot a lit.tle spare time and. a lot of enBrIY. Phone Bruce. 'at Wendover 624206 (evenings). El'CmRA AN ALTERNATIVE technoloQ exhibition week is planned for early autumD in the PpOle/Bournemouth eeL. Anyone Wilbfnl to COD:t.rlbQte exhibitl. information 01' penon power please contact Poole ,FOE",13 ToibBy Road. P&rkstone, roole, Dorset, or phone Northboume 71848 or Bournemouth 743902. LAURIESTON FISH' WORKSHOP Au&. 7'th·14th for BD70De in.tereIt.ed in the use of water resources by Ielf.w.fficient commUDiU ... The aim 11 to devile and initiate an eco1olically IOUDd Itratqem for water relOurce use at lAU!ielJton Hall. Write with SAE for details·to LaurlestoQ HaD, Castle DoUJad. KJrkcudbriaht·shIN. GET LOST this summer wi'th ‘Head for the Hills'. 12& weekly. 21 Pembroke Ave., Have. SUISe:l: (+ stamp). PARCELS: keep on sending the goods. .. Ta. OOPS! CCiwd BO:l: SG. send 1U their adcJrea. to Undercurrents, 213 .Archway Rd, London N6. Sorry we've lost it:


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undercurrents 17 august-september 1976

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