Ley Lines vs the Anthropocene: Genius Locorum and the Folkloric Gaze

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Ley lines are often dismissed in the modern day as 'superstition' or 'pseudoscience'. In fact, they, and the spirits which are believed to dwell along them, represent a powerful opposition to our detachment from the landscape around us.

In the video below, self-described 'Fourth Generation Witch' Ginny Metheral films her engagement with a local ley line and a spirit she encounters there. Metheral notes that the barrow she is visiting, 'just to the side of the ley line', is situated at a high point, which relates to the initial argument of Alfred Watkins that ley lines were a form of way-making (for further detail on the history of ley lines, see my previous blog post). She uses a pendulum (an instrument often used to 'dowse' a ley line) to 'ask questions' to the ley line, and discover any spirits which may be present. (1)

What is a Genius Loci?

I argued in my previous discussion on ghosts and ley lines that spirit encounters along ley lines resemble genius loci more than 'traditional' ghosts.  The term genius loci originates from ancient Rome, where it referred to a deity who dwelled in a specific place. This space might be marked privately by altars featuring statues, amulets, icons or burning incense, and was publicly manifest in temples and the areas surrounding them. It is believed that early Britons similarly built their sacred places on sites which held what Ackroyd terms a ’territorial imperative’ or genius loci. (2) Today, the term more often refers to the sense of vitality or personality of a place, particularly within cultural heritage and tourism studies, and has thus become removed from its original spiritual meaning. However, in the case of ley line experiences, aspects of Roman understanding can be clearly seen.

Ley Lines and Spiritual Healing

Next to ghosts and orbs, healing encounters were the second most common category of ley line interactions discussed in the social media groups I have studied. This can take two forms; the healing of the experiencer, or the healing of the ley line itself. Several commenters recounted experiences of spiritual healing along ley lines, which are often accompanied by a feeling of ‘peace’ or ‘renewal’. Walking along ley lines may increase mental clarity and emotional balance or increase the vividness of dreams. In an interview with Kayla Maneen, acupuncturist and crystal healer Sarah Thomas claimed that ley lines can affect ‘fertility, agriculture, mood, memory, perception and, ultimately, consciousness itself’, (3) and Earth Mysteries proponent William Bloom argues that meditating on a ‘ley centre‘ can facilitate 'consciousness expansion‘. (4)

In Relationship with the Earth

The relationship between humans and ley lines is not usually understood as one-way, however. Just as humans might receive certain benefits from ley lines, ley lines can also benefit from healing encounters with humans, a reciprocal dynamic which recalls ancient Roman interactions with genius locorum. According to the website Lastingham Friends, one visitor to St Mary’s church, Yorkshire, which is believed to sit on a ley line, paid yearly visits to the church’s crypt in order to offer a prayer and a sprig of heather because she felt ‘it was appropriate’. (5) One commenter in r/wicca even described meditating on a ley line and ‘feeding’ it with ‘cosmic love and light energy’, reasoning that the well-being of ley lines is vital for Gaia, the earth goddess, and all living beings who inhabit her. (6)

 Other ley line healings mentioned in the Earth Healing, Ley Lines and Earth Energy Facebook group mention using a ’sensitive person’ or even a dog to identify any blockages in the ley line, or meditating and asking the ley line what it needs, before sleeping and looking out for answers in form of dreams. One commenter specifically mentions ’land spirits’, a category in which they include fairies and dragons, claiming that these spirits can aid in bringing ley lines into alignment. (7)

Dowsing a Photo?

Fascinatingly, one commenter responded to one member’s request for information on how to work with the ley line running through their apartment by claiming to have ‘dowsed’ the attached photo, discovering a disturbance in the ley line. Dowsing is a widespread method of detecting ley lines, traditionally used to discover water sources, which utilises rods or pendulums to sense energy flows beneath the earth. (8) Traditionally, this involves walking along the landscape, however, as evidenced by this comment, the practice has expanded to involve other methods of dowsing. 

'Nature as Ontological Being'

As part of his PhD thesis, James Thurgill met with a self-identified witch, geomancer and psychic, who showed him how to dowse a ley line. At a certain point in their walk, she led him in an attempt to commune with a spirit of place, or genius loci, using dowsing rods in a similar way to an Ouija board by asking yes or no questions and interpreting the movements of the rods as answers, in a similar manner to Ginny Metheral in her YouTube video. 

Thurgill notes that although he was unsure of the efficacy of the practice, there was: 

a genuine sense of enchantment as the instruments appeared to communicate the unseen, unheard agency that supposedly surrounded us.

This kind of communication, along with attempts to heal the ley line itself, thus demonstrates a personified understanding of place, rooted in what Thurgill refers to as ’nature as an ontological Being’. The ley line is viewed as ’alive’, sentient, and, most importantly, in communion with humanity. (9)

A New Folklore of Place

This understanding of the landscape bears several similarities with wider pagan engagements with nature and monuments. In their paper on contemporary pagan interactions with archaeology, Robert J. Wallis and Jenny Blain argue that pagan engagements with archaeological monuments represent a ‘new folklore’ of place, as places are constantly imbued with sacred meaning and are viewed as currently ‘alive’. Ancient monuments become places for communion with ancestors or the Earth deity, and where ‘the spirit/energy of the land can be felt most strongly’. It is the landscape, not the human, who is positioned at the forefront of this ’new folklore’, thus ’sites, stones and spirits are active contributors to stories of place’. (10)

In a world where humanity is viewed as the active agent, the force for progress, this folkloric view is radical. Even from their inception by Watkins, ley lines have challenged this modern, anthropocentric view of the world. Michael Charlesworth argues that Watkins’ photographs demonstrating his ley line theory ’conjure up a perfected Britain: made perfect because devoid of all signs of the modern world [...] and freed from its unruly population; a land perpetually quiet, ancient, and beautiful’. (11) Walking ley lines, for Watkins, was a way of reconnecting and uncovering a forgotten part of history, a way of connecting with our ancestors and their legacy.

The Alienation of the Anthropocene

While ley lines can be traced on maps, a vital part of ley hunting is walking the ley line. This process necessitates a folkloric view of the world, one which prioritises the natural and the ancient above the modern and pays attention to the often-unnoticed ley markers, such as mounds or stones. Thurgill argues that walking ’allows for an inherently physical connection with the landscape through the placing of the body in the environment and the necessary contact between body and earth’, a connection which is deprioritised in Western capitalist society. (12)

In his paper on folklore and the climate crisis, Callum Bateson argues that one of the major impacts of the Anthropocene, the current geological age characterised by humanity’s influence on the environment, is ’alienation from the natural world’, resulting in nature being ’reduced to a pitiful aspect of the human experience’. Bateson goes on to argue that folklore can be a powerful tool in restoring a sense of consequence between human action and the environment, but I would argue that the folklore surrounding ley lines serves a further purpose. (13)

Folklore-Tinted Glasses

Ley lines are by nature non-specific, as are many of the experiences reported in conjunction with them, as we have seen. Although they encompass various natural features and ancient monuments, they are not restricted to any one of these. Indeed, one of the major criticisms of ley lines is that a person wishing to identify one can select any data points they wish, omitting those which do not fit into the desired alignment. This results in what Thurgill terms a ’topography of generosity’, a form of meaning-making which encompasses ’a multitude of places in its very unfolding’. (14)

This, I argue, is the core reason why many ley line encounters are non-specific and are very rarely accompanied by substantive explanation. To those having the experiences, it is not important whether the orb they saw was a ghost, a fairy, or a lens flair; what is important is the experience itself, and the meaning it conveys. 

Ley lines offer a sense of connection with the natural world which is so often absent in our daily lives. By looking at the landscape through the folkloric lens of ley lines, technological glitches transform into benevolent spirits, an empty field becomes a place for communion with land spirits.

References

1. Ginny Metheral, 'Why you would use Ley lines & how to find Earth Bound Spirits', YouTube,  https://youtu.be/fBt4apr1wpc

2. Peter Ackroyd, quoted by Thurgill in ‘Enchanted Geographies: Experiences of place in contemporary British Landscape Mysticism’, PhD thesis, (2014)‘.

3. Kayla Maneen, ’Tap into the Healing Power of Ancient Ley Lines’, The Laurel of Asheville, (2016), https://thelaurelofasheville.com/lifestyle/wellness/tap-healing-power-ancient-ley-lines/.

4. William Bloom and Marko Pogacnik, Ley Lines and ecology: an introduction, (Gothic Image, 1985), accessed via the digital version on https://williambloom.com/2016/05/29/leylines-and-ecology/.

5. Elizabeth Lester, ’The Church, Its Crypt and the Ley Lines’, Lastingham Friends, (date unknown), http://www.lastinghamfriends.com/the-church-and-its-ley-lines.html.

6. https://www.reddit.com/r/Wicca/.

7.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/188797651631663/.

8. Anonymous, ’The Mary and Michael Ley Lines’, Royston Cave Archive, (2022), https://www.roystoncave.co.uk/post/ley-lines.

9. James Thurgill, ‘Enchanted Geographies: Experiences of place in contemporary British Landscape Mysticism’, PhD thesis, (2014).

10. Robert J. Wallis and Jenny Blain, ’Sites, Sacredness, and Stories: Interactions of Archaeology and Contemporary Paganism’, Folklore, 114:3, (2003).

11. Michael Charlesworth, ‘Photography, the Index, and the Nonexistent: Alfred Watkins’ Discovery (or Invention) of the Notorious Ley‐lines of British Archaeology’, Visual Resources, 26:2, (2010).

12. James Thurgill, ‘Enchanted Geographies'.

13. Callum Bateson, ’Folklore and the Climate Crisis: Reading Beara as an Anthropocene Patch with Máiréad Ní Mhíonacháin’, Networking Knowledge, 14:2, (2021)

14. James Thurgill, ‘A Strange Cartography: Leylines, Landscape and “Deep Mapping” in the Works of Alfred Watkins’, Humanities, 4:4, (2015).

Further Reading

Jonathan Woolley, 'The wires crossed: What dowsing reveals about environmental knowledge Britain', Anthropology Today, 34, (2018).

Ginny Metheral, 'Ley Lines, Earth's Magick and witchcraft, how to use Ley Lines in your craft', YouTube, https://youtu.be/gSMIr7dPEuI