UC17 August-September 1976 by Christopher Squire

1 11'-

DE! Leys are Dead- Long Live Leys!*Kirlian Photography* Dowsing*Women&AT~Terrest rial Zodiacs* Collecting Seeds* ~echnologies*~hristopher Wren's Beehive and much more.

INNER TECHNOLOGY Special Issue

BSc and BSc Honours In Society and Technology Apply now to atari &I September 1976 -

This three and threequarter year course offers you the opportunity to study the natural and social sciences and their interdependence. You can enter with A levels in any two subjects. The course provides an understandingo f the complex relationships betwccn society and tcchrfology. enabling you not only to understand your own place in contemporary society. but to work responsibly with the benefits that technology can bring.

Write or lekplume for tartlMT details and M applitlon form to:

The Admissions Office.MhMksex Poltltthnk (Ref. Cll4). 8248 CiMirch Street,

Lon*Ã N9 9PD. lfIcphoiK 01^07 9601-2.

BSc. (Hons) Sociql and Physical Sciences Our concerns are w11 expmsstd by Theodore Roszak i n tfiert the Nasteland Ends: "Science I s not, i n ny view, t r e l y mother subJtrt for discussion. It i s tin subject. It i s the p r i m expression of the W i t ' s cuUura1 uniqueness, the secret o f our extraordinary dynamism, the keystone o f technocratic politics, the curse and the g i f t M bring to hlstory.. Mhem social t h ~ g h on t the d l l e c - s of urban-industrial lift refuses to touch science c r i t f c a l l y it betrays i t s essential c o n s t r v a t i r and can only finish with shallow understarding". I f these concerns a r t yours and i f you a r t interested I n interd1sctplinary study i n a demanding context,then witc f o r further U e t Ã § i l to the Senior Faculty Assistent, Faculty o f Science ind Tiichn~loay. Ihwcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic, Ellfson Building. E-lKsim Place. Newcutk upon Tyne HE1 8ST.

Radical Science Journal

No. 4 now waitable 60p 104 pagm lonttnÂ¥<SIMO PICKVANCE-"Lifc"in a biology llb; LUKE HODGKIN CHARLIE CLUTTERBUCK-Oetth In thÃ polltia ..and - - nhviical - u-inn-: . Iftia industry. Rawiem: BOB YOUNG-'Lobour and Monopoly Capital7, y HmyBrawnnan; DAVE ELUOTT-'Alternative Technology and the ofitiq.crf.Technical Change' by David Dickson. COPIES OF DOUBLE ISSUE RSJ 213 STILL AVAILABLE BOP -

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CanfntB GARY WERSKEY-Mtkiw Socialists of Scientists; SH Politla of Abortion; ALFRED SOHN-RETHEL-Scmnm as Alien DAVID DICKSON-Scienw Ã§ndSocktyt h BA Con.Trick: PAT TheUazanb of qork. RavIms! ORIAN HURWITZ-'Libration a Scioux' by Brian Eaika; MIKE HALES-'Knowledns and Human HtbBrmas: CHRIS GREEN-'Sctenm for t b Peonte' bv David L w t

tERCURREN7'S T 0306 2392 el-current* I* published bimonthly by el-currents Limited, a democratic, nonprofit company without share capital and limited by guarantee. Printed In England by Prestagate Ltd., 39 Underwood Road. Reading. Berks. phone Reading (0734)583958. Reprotyping by Geoffrey Cooper and Jenny , Pennings. Undercurrents possesses two equally modest offices. One Is a t 213 Archway Road, London N6 BBN. England, phone 01-3401898. The other is a t 11Shadwall, Uley, Dursley, Gloucestershire, GL11 6BW. England, phone Uley (0453 86) 636. Please send subscriptions, orders for s i m e copies, and the like. to Uley and editorial material of all kinds to London. Subscriptions to Undercurrents cost Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ2.5 per year of six issues to the UK or surface mail to anywhere except North America. Airmail rates on application. But all subscriptions to the USA, Canada and Mexico cost S7.60, airfreighted, per year. OUT airfreight agents are Expediters of the Printed Word Inc. 527 527 Madison Avenue, New York. NY 10022. Second class Dostage paid at New York City.

August-September 1976

2 8

PREHISTORIC COSMOLOGY. Paul Devereux's child's guide to inner technologies; should lead you painlessly to greater things 1 below.

SAVING YOUR OWN SEED. Lawrence D Hills on growing your own vegetables and collecting the seeds; Thompson and Morgan beware!

10 , .

THE OLD STONES OF LAND'S END REVISITED. Pat Gadsby and Chris Hutton Squire on their computer ley hunt.

This issue's cover is by Richard Elen and shows an idealised ley line. It is based o n the cover of an American paperback we likpd.

THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE AND CHRISTOPHER WREN'S BEEHIVE. John Fletcher on some of the Undercurrents collective's 17th century predecessors.

DOWSING. A practical introduction to dowsing for the alternative technologist, by Tom Graves.

LETTERS. The participative particle.

THE LEY THAT ALWAYS WAS. A compendium of readers' replies to our last foray into positivist ley-hunting.

PRACTICAL KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY. Richard Elen's how-to guide on the photography of the aura.

WOMEN AND AT. Ruth Elliott on women in what has till now been a mostly male preserve.

Note to the trade; we have two distributors Omnibus Books Ltd. 53 West Ham Lane. London El6 4PH supply bookshops, health food shops and alternative goodies shops in the UK. Their phone is 01-6347543. Paperchain Ltd, 43 Silver Street, Whitwick, Leics, supply other UK outlets and all wholesalers in the UK. Their phones are 0530 37413 and 01-7410203. Queries about UK distribution should go t o Chris Hutton-Squire at our London office, who may be phoned at 01-8910989 (home) or 01-2616774 (office). He also handles queries about the North American airfaeight operation. Other enquiries about overseas distribution may be sent to our Uley office.

EDITORIAL. Mostly about how this magazine comes to be.

COPYRIGHT. Unless otherwise marked, the copyright @ 1976 of everything in this magazine belongs to Undercurrents Ltd. We wfll happily let people we like reproduce; but you must ask our permission. PERSONNEL. undercurrents has two part-time employees. Sally Boyle and Joyce Evans. It also has a lot of unpaid part-timers, of whom the following played the main roles in the production of this magazine; Barbara Kern, Chris Hutton-Squire, Dave Elliott, Dave Smith. Duncan Campbell, Godfrey Boyle, Martin Ince. Martyn Partridge, Pat Coyne, Pete Glass. Peter Cockerton, Peter Sommer, Richard Elen and Tony Durham. Thanks for writing news stories in this and the previous Undercurrents are due to Andrew Curry. Christine Tardy. Dave . Newbery, David Wickers, Geoff Tansey, Ian Henderson, Nick Passmore, Pat Battams and Ralph Jones. And thanks to everyone a t Earth Exchange in Archway Road. especially Nigel and Hermione Gowland. More mugs are a1 ays needed; come t o one of our Wednesday evenina meetings if you think you might be interested in helping.

EDDIES. News, Scandal, Gossip, Trivia, Grotesquerie and Misery.

But which is which?

TERRESTRIAL ZODIACS. Paul Screeton describes a remarkable and ancient link between Earth and Sky.

REVIEWS. We savage or praise works on health, energy, meteorology, food from windmills, childbirth, dowsing, housing, more windmills, meditation, Findhorn, anarchist workers, insulation and French AT.

WHAT'S' ON. Fill up those nasty white spaces in your diary before it's too late. SMALL ADS. Consumer's corner.

Undercurrents 17

eddic8 AN AMAZING hijack of BBC Radio took place over the whole of uthern England recently. At 11pm o n April 1st Radio 1listeners everywhere from Eastbourne t o the Scillies were astonished t o hear John Peel's opening remarks drowned in a hail of machine-gun fire, followed immediately by a rendering of The Who's classic hit Substitute. Mystery deepened into intrigue as the familiar coffee-table-mckslot gave way t o a bizarre anthology of banned records, esoteric humour and subversive comments, For 35 minutes the good folk of the South Coast heard a demonstrain stereo. A spoof public service tion of uninhibited free radio broadcast from the Metrication Board warned the fearful populace that if they persisted in using old-fashioned units they might find their houses "mysteriously demolished by bulldozers during the night." That was followed by a banned lOcc track advocating degrees of intimacy undreamt of in Broadcasting House.. and a diatribe by "the new chairman of the BBC", one Mi Amin.

...

While all this was going on Beeb engineers were wrestling manfully with the ether trying to put John Peel back on his throne. At 11.35 spellbound listeners had their hifidelity pirate programme rudely interrupted by Aunty's crude attempts to reassert her monopoly, and the voice of the hip establishment lurched uncertainly back into the world of the living, accompanied by much thumping and hissing. The coup was made possible by the fact that every night the BBC Rowridge transmitter on the Isle of Wight rebroadcasts Radio 1 on VHF directly to Southern England and, by way of further relays, throughout South West England and the Channel Islands. Unlike most transmitters, which are fed by landline, Rowrid takes its Radio 1 signal off m e air 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 Rowidge and its dependants at their mercy. And that's what happened to J.P. A small 30 watt stereo transmitter connected to a cassette player had been hidden in

a hedgerow not a thousand metres from the low mast. Activated automatically at l l p m by a solidstate binary-counter this smallbut-rather-near pirate station came on the air, swamping the Rowridge transmitter with a signal 200 times stronger than the one received from Wrotham. taking over effortlessly from Radio 1. It isn't known how long BBC engineers took to become suspicious about, the unusually ' high programme quality but it was over half an hour before they could rectify the situation. Eventually they managed to rig up an emergency landline by way of Post Office Telephones, so that when Radio 1 was restored it was in mono, distorted, lacking top frequencies and generally exhibiting all the grottiness of an ordinary domestic telephone tine. The technical sophistication of the project brought private expressions of admiration from BBC engineers themselves. The London-Wrotharn signal is carried along a 13-bhannel pulse code-modulated (PCM) microwave link built t o high specifica-

tions. And as BRC off-air receivers are very particular about the sort of signals they relay to the public the pirate transmitter had to be fiendishly stable, drifting only a few hundredths of one percent from its allocated frequency throughout the whole performance. After the midnight news and weather forecast in the wee small hours of April 2nd drowsy Radios 1 and 2 listeners were treated to an unusual announcement. In the sweetest possible way the p r e sentation lady apolgised to listeners in Southern England who

Oz Uranium ban to stay JIM ASSENBRUCK, a supervisor at the Townsville railway station i~ Queensland, was dismissed o n May 19th. In accordance with Australia Railway Union (ARU) policy o n the mining and export of uranium hi had refused to supervise the loading of sulphur destined for use in uranium processing at the Mary Kathleen mine. Local railway union members until the Ranger Uranium took immediate strike action on Environmental Enquiry makes his behalf, and five days later findings known. Its fist report 100,000 Australian railway will be completed in August th workers staged a 24-hour year. Despite threats and pleas stoppage in support of their from the governments and con Townsville colleagues. As part of pany involved the unions have a temporary settlement Jim was remained firm, and on 28th Ju they refused to export 45 tom reinstated and railway workers agreed to handle materials bound of yellowcake, (U,O,), to the USA. for the nine until a special As Pat Dunne, Federal ARU meeting of the Australian Council President points out, the unior of Trade Unions was held on are ~renaredto back up their June 4th. beliefs with action. ~ e c l e a r l ysees Subsequent meetings of all the issue as a moral one, and adds unions involved proposed to the that union members have notir-ACTU executive that no uranium to gain financially by striking. be allowed to leave Australia spite of inconvenience caused 1 I the strike there was a good dea support for the unions' stand from commuters, Labour Part) politicians, overseas trade unionists, environmentalist grc and others. There was little coi boosted by another fuel such as demnation except from predictable sources such as gas. The porous, slowly-turning conservative Queensland and wheels which dry and cool the Federal governments and news incoming air are.supplied by the paper editorials. Munters Corporation of Sweden, Australia holds about 28% oJ and like the well-known Munters world uranium resources outsi~ heat-conservation wheels they are socialist countries. Until the 01 made of an asbestos compound. come of the public enquiry is Gas developments say there is no known the unions will ensure t risk of cancer-causing asbestos these reserves are not exported fibres being released, since the and used. Given the present wheels do not rub against anyuncertainty about global thing. But they are aware that resources, keeping Australia's asbestos gives their equipment uranium in the ground is a bad name and say they are a significant setback for o looking for a substitute. nuclear power industries.

Solar asbestos hitch THE SOLAR-MEC airconditioning plant exhibited o n London's South Bank durine the blazing days of June may not be the boon to the environment that it seemed. For one thing, it was not totally solar-powered but ran on gas, with a boost from highefficiency solar collectors. Hence its presence there at the 13th World Gas Conference. It was developed in Chicago by the Gas Developments Corporation, with finance from 16 gas companies, who are presumably interested in getting people to burn more gas, rather than promoting solar

energy for its own sake. Undoubtedly the Solar-MEC idea is ingenious. (MEC stands tor Munters Environmental Control.) It uses no separate refrigerant, but passes the intake air first tBrough a 'drying wheel', then through a heat-exchange wheel, and then through moist pads which cool the dried air by evaporation. The only energy input is the-heat needed to regenerate the moistureabsorbing coating of the drying wheel. This requires a temperature of 290Ă&#x201A;Â°C not maintainable with nonfocussing solar collectors unless

"may have been listening to th wrong programme" and expre! the Corporation's satisfaction that they were "now back with us". Not a mention of anarchy breaking out all over. Unfortunately it is a trick that can never be pulled again. A couple of days later, as a mysterious person slipped quietly off the Isle of Wight with a small package under his arm, BBC and PO engineers were busy closing the loophole, installing high &ality landlinesto carry Radio 1 safe and sound to

naercurrents

eaueS

Ã‘Â¥Ã‘

-1 New tactic at Lucas

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LUCAS AEROSPACE Muuge ment law rejected the workers' Alteinltive Corporate Plan. But anyone who believes that thu Is juat another 'nice idea' defeated have,reckoned without the tenacity of Local workeri, many of whom were incensed by the hud-faced Management attitude. Even the co-tive magazine The Engineer wÃ§ moved to say that "the firm may have scuttled potentially profitable ideas an wel as a peaceful future." Far from giving up ideas outlined in the Ran the workers hav~ adopted a new approach to bring the issue back into the centre of industrial politics. The TASS section ofthe AUEW union, covering draughtsmen and system engineers throughout Lucas" IndustWes, have now raised the 'alterptives' as part,$f the currem round of wage bargain&. They h a p asked Lucas Management how much they areprepaxed to spend on the design and manufacture of socially useful products. Among other things they .have demanded a 40% increase in '*kidney machine production. * Essentiallv the unions are aiming f i r i 'social wage3, demanding that money given up by socially responsible wagerestraiat is used for socially usefu production. If Management again r e f i n e t o d i s c u s s this they will find thamselves in an even more exposed position, having turned down a highly reasonable and non-inflationary request from th4 trade union side. &&om this immediate tactiefte Lucas Akxospace woeare convinced that, in the company will be d unwilling to avoid redundancies in the longer term. There are rumow of closures in Britainand a Â£1million exof Lucas activities abroad, in Bra&, among Maces where facilities will be expanded by a factor of thru To some extent the Corporate Ian ha acted as a stalling device: has forewarned the m a n a p ment that any redundancies wouldbethesisnflfoiamassive campaign in support of the Flan. Hence their soothing reply that since aerospace would "continue to guarantee jobs" there was no need to diversify. whether they can keep this bargain remains to seen. .V^"So far Lucas Management haw not replied directly to t h e 'social wage' part of the TASS claim. However, news of the imminent sacking of 10 workers from the : Neasden plant, which prodwxi kidney machines, might well be taken as an indirect Manaiwment

3-year old hippy village housed in former naval barracks in downti GOOD NEWS from Chris bpenhagen. Bailiffs called in by the Danish Ministry of Defence refused to take action until the High Court ulenon a case brought by Christiania against the Government. The case,which began in June, is certain to go o the Supreme Court, m the community is safe for another couple of years. In March 1973 the Government decided to hold an Ideas Competition for suggestions about the long-term uture of the site. At a meeting between officials and community leaders held in June the same year. 'hristianians were promised that they could continue to live in the area during the 'presumed' three years$f.;:,&; he competition. But due to disagreements between Copenhagen Council and the Government the Ideas ?;~:7..: ;ompetition never took place. In spite of this the Government went ahead with plans to close Christiania .... lo& and redevelop the Lea, and they announced that the village would be cleared by Aptil1976. In.brmBine their .- action Communitv reoresentatives ouote the Minister of Culture at the June 1973 nee-: "Christiania can continue until the result of the Ideas Competition is known. An experiment can, if t is successful, also continue beyond this." They argue that if the competition is to be dropped then new alks between Christiania and the Government are required, and that the latter have no right to take unilateral 'etion. %- -*->' There is opposition to Christiania, however.,The righ the Communist P nd demanded special leglslatibi>&6.c~<figthe free town. vho see Christiama as "an adcurnu&tioti'of social unfortunates on the run from society, romantic and mstaleic." and were one of the parliamentary parties calling on the Government to "wind it up as soon a mssible." Fortunately for ~kisiianiathe revolution hasn'treached Denmark yet. One of the effects of the threat of eviction has been a remarkable transformation of the area. In early 975 much of itsesembled a rubbish dump strewn with occa3ional dwellings, but the need to gain public upport has catalysed a general clean-up and a more enthusiastic drive to put ideas of self-sufficiency into mactice. The village is now characterised by well-painted buildings, a mass of small workshops, well-ordered vegetable patcheskd fewer smashed bottles arid broken-down people. Thetinhabitants, temporarily reprieved, are back making music, doing theatre, organising concerts and participating in environmental

"".a

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old every last kg of output* supported; but he bs not f o u he mine light into the 80s,w,time to sign the necessary papa nostly to Britain. RoÂ ¥ . . ! & ~ ~ w h fSecretary l of State for lemonstrates better than *TS,^ Energy. Must be the hard grind rther issue the Labour Party's-r- - ' of oven novemhent. Meat at the hands of the S; thework at ROSS@ goes on, backed in part by the British ~ucleazp o w lobby. guarantee. The reserves there are I~ 1969 B ~ as M, ~ , over lW9000tof uranium, fo Fechnology (remember?) signed I deal to buy 10,0001 of h t$!&$%htaes' potential for profit even '=after RTZ have recouped their ~~~~i~~ uranium, whose w 2 0 investment. Output will could scarcely have been ignorant reach 5,000t this year. There's if b e nr..it* " a Witann dirertive that this be kept secret the deal ked to the Telegraph and 7

-. --"

..--..

public-spirited Fact Sheets on .' Rossing (free from them at 6 St James's Sq., London SW1). It spends some time describing the near-utopian conditions of - : the new township of Arandis, built for black employees only. Among the many luxuries being provided for them at the expense of generous RTZ shareholders is a solar hot-water system, dottbtless to help wash off the light sweat of an honest day's toil in the mine. We have been unable to discover whether the BRAD solarroof d e w is t o t e wed.

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POILSPORT RADIO jammers are playing a nightly game of cat-

_ mouse with Post Office engineers in the streets of South London. -

ffith their transmittershidden in the boots of ens and th<backs of are wiginf electronic guerilla warfare against the Wstal Palace 'ham' repeater station, known to its friends as GB3LO. The repeater is owned and operated by the Radio Society of Great Irit8in as a anvice to amateurs, enabling them to boost their agnals )va much great distances. It is wed on the VHP 2 metre b e by mobile' transmitters which would otherwise be limited to a range of ibout 15 miles. By tuning in to the repeater station their signals can each ova most of Southern England. But the jammers, many of of the jammera. and were fhom are themselves licenced somewhat begrudgingly relead. idio hams, regard this as cheating The originaljamming campaign - . h e y say amateur broadcasters was intended to get GB3LO dosed d overcome the problem of down which it actually succeeded by using their ingenuity in doing for 2 months in 1975. tead of hitching a ride on Recently, though, it has become a 3L0, and for the last 3 years pretext for ritual aggro between have persistently interfered the wreckers and the Post Office the repeater's operation. with jammers driving very dose to ere are are about 30 jammers - the transmitter in blatant all, taking turns to cruise provocation of the waiting ound Crystal Palace broadcasting detector vans. Sooner or sic, foul language, arrests will be made, and seasoned personations of well-known observers confidently anticipate blic figures. irreverent fines rather larger than Â£12 mments and even details cerning the private lives of st Office engineers. For its part the Post Office is termined to crush this violation CAMERAS IN Dale Street, a busy ood broadcasting ethics, thoroughfare in central Liverpool, ough it hasn't had much are being used for surveillan& of oedestrians as well as for their official function of tratf1c control. A report in Liverpool Free Press tells us of the arrest of an unnamed man shortly after a bomb-scare at nearby Cheapside police station. He was asked what he had been doing in Dale Street on the day of the scale and, upon asking h& it w u known thathe had been there, was told that he had been "sea" by the camem". This can only mean that police acquainted with the appeaxance of local lefties (the man.&an NUPI? official at Walton Hospital) must have examined all the footage of pedestrians in Dale Street that day. Next time you fork out for your Road Fund ' Licence don't complain: free protection from the forces of anarchy with each one. Ã§the jammers

Pool probe

Habitat cash plea

.miles away. ~t the fesf~va~F@-' -

AFTER A LOT of advance publicity People's Habitat got under way on 29th May and lasted for eight days. in spite of a mid-week hint from council officials that the festival had gone on long enough and 'things get 'broken'. Heavy rain over the first weekend did nothing to dampen the spirits of participants, but there was evident disappointment in some circles that the occasion wasn't more like -the Ideal Home Exhibition. Had the publicity really given that impression? The festival had no real tocal centre - it just went on and on, stretching &om the rehabilitate-" .house in Brunei Road to m y

:fl

The hydroelectric Power Station, Downton, Wiltshire, closed ie March 1973 ostensibly because it was no longer economical to n 11OKw station was opened 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 responsible for regulating the local network of sluices on the River Avon. Since closure it has been up for sale. It may appear that it is CEGB policy to close down small, local, power stations, preferring to build larger ones. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was policy" said Trevor Jones, of South Western Region He said that although there were several small power stations still operating in Devon and Cornwall it was inevitable that as their equip ment grew older and less efficient they would be closed down. Investing money in new large stations provided a better return than renovating small ones. The power station buildings are still in good condition, despite dampness and incidental vandalism. They are extensive, with access to the road, a small amount of land and the prospect of generating one'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 Â£30,000 Downton is 6m south of Salisbury on thuA338. The Estate Agents dealing with the Old Power Station, Downton, are Humbert, Rawlence, Flint and Squarey, 48 Castle Street, Salisbury. Tel: Salisbury 22442.

f-J

and information centre in St Paul's School there was a rather mixed photographic exhibition covering everything from Christiania to Kensington. Not 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 Bud's huge Cretan sail windmill, built on a solid twenty-foot brick tower, with the purpose of raising water from the dock basin to lubricate nearby allotments. The windmill was begun a few days before the

Â¥Ekinfor an encouraging sight.

Talk-ins were held on a variety

of AT and related subjects. The

windmill event was well attended, and so was the Land for the People meeting. A solar collector was painstakingly constructed 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 shoestring 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 Undercurrents readers would be greatly appreciated. Anyone who feels like chipping in should send their contribution to People's Habitat,

eddies

urrents 17

werwhelmed by m e n Guerillas REVOLUTION IS taking place in New York City, spearheaded by oup known as the 'Green Guerillas*. They are a collection of inteer horticulturalits, architects, planners and botanists, dedicated he greening of the urban environment. They have covered vacant with flowers and trees, and transformed rubble into radishes. Their hods are often militant but their only bombs are balloons filled i seeds, soil and water, which they lob into fenced-off patches of in ugliness. here are thousands of vacant survey many more people would is in the 5 New York boroughs, like to grow vegetables if only most of them unattractive and they had the space.. . . . debris-strewn. Unlike London, NYC offers few of its inhabitants lawn. and ft A even a ~ostage-stamp . massed open spaces are a rarity. The Guerillas began their campaign in 1973 and as a result of their efforts more and more community gardens are now being ling 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 of the operation. Manv of the new and delightful city gardens are the result of a long, hard struggle against red-tape, bureaucratic hassles and commercial interests. Their size varies from the so-c 'vest-pocket' gardens in odd corners to large-scale restorati One vacant and distressing lot on the Bowery was restored to farmland, together with a special area for children to grow things. In 1974 it won the Molly Parnis 'Dress Up Your Neighbourhood' competition. Another grand scheme was the 'greening of AUTHORISED OFFICIALS Ruppert' in mid-town Manhattan may enter any premises in the UK on the site of one of the old great where they suspect atomic energy breweries. The brewery itself was work is proceeding, without giving demolished a few years ago and notice to the occupant and now the land supports 80 indiwithout a magistrate's warrant. visual plots for community They. may gardeners. . inspect . the premises or any articles there, and may copy This interest in gardening is part such things as drawings, or of New Yorkers' wider enthusiasm remove them, subject to returning for bringing nature and rural them within seven days. charm into their concrete These powers, spelled out by surroundings. Many are into Energy Secretary Tony Benn in 'growing their own decor', and a written answer to a Parliasome Manhattan apartment mentary Question in June, date windows are like mini-jungles. The from the Atomic Energy Act 'in' interior design concept is the 1946. Surprise raids o n Harwell or living room as landscape, backed Windscale by the UK Atomic up by window-boxes and Energy Authority Police seem balconies, fire escapes and roof implausible, but there are circumareas sprouting all manner of stance in which the powers of greenery, both floral and edible. entry might be invoked against The plant-shop business, with private citizens. names like 'Mother Earth* and Gas and electricity authorities 'Grass Roots', is booming. also have powers of entry, but Apart from improving the actual unless there is an emergency such appearance of the city the as a fire or gas escape, the popularity of growing fruit and occupier's consent or vegetables reflects the rising cost a magistrate's warrant is needed. of shopbought produce, as well The need for inroads into as recognition of the nutritional individual freedom and privacy in value of fresh, home-grown food. a nuclear-powered society was According to a recent Gallup Poll

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in Stockholm "This exhibition deals with the future, with the opportunities open to us for building a society in a vital balance with the surrounding nature, and which acquires its energy from the inexhaustible resources made available to us b y the ecological system. . . . " "The exhibition seeks to demonstrate that many ecologically souni alternatives already exist. We believe that people are unaware that the] exist. . . . . "

1 1

As these publicity quotes imp1 the ARARAT exhibition in Stockholm was designed to 'turn 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, togeth with displays of AT hardware a some highly abstract ecological symbolism. But the abstractness of the symbolism, based on an earth, air, water and sun motif, meant that it was difficult to relate all 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 were obviously mystified and wandered around the exhibition,

to privacy

perfectly clear to the State 30 years ago, but only in the past few years has this become a serious concern among opponents of nuclear power.

right, Prof, you'llget it back ten days. "

housed ir Itra-modern, full: air-conditioned museum, clutct ing guide-books and looking no a little overwhelmed. It seems to have been m( successful as an education^. used by school parties with guii \@lo could interpret the visual rhetoric and answer questions. There were some very promisin, ancillary developments, too: wt equipped workshops where kid! students and AT-freaks could tinker with actual bits of hardware, and a fascinating D-I-Y house, built entirely from scrap replete with solar-collectors, passive heat store and aerobic COmpoSter. An electric tricycle, driven by a washing-machine motor, powered by windmillcharged batteries, was also on display, and could occasionally seen ghding noiselessly around site. But overall, ARARAT was somewhat static. In the UK we have to some extent gone beyo the 'autonomous house* idea, much in evidence in photograpl and exhibits at Stockholm, and onto more community-oriented experiments. True, the hardwar displayed at ARARAT was ver; sophisticated, with a large numl of (mostly commercial) aerogenerators and solar panels, methane generators, stirling engines, hydraulic rams. But rn( of these items were sitting arou like statues, unattended and unrelated to any social context, merely to be stared at by the curious. That seems to be the basic contradiction of an exhibition ( AT hardware. You can relate it general ecological principles fairly successfully, but it is hare given a museum site, to relate il a real social context, and thus enable people to assess their attitude to it as a personal ' l i e style' possibility. Nevertheless the exhibition, a the associated lecture series, set to have had a major impact in Sweden. 75,000people visited and there are plans for the exhi tion to tour Europe, Vienna fir stop. It would be interesting to see the reaction of a British audience.

mONSTRUCTION O F A huge 5000 ton liquid pronvlene tank'is eating concern in Manchester. It is fearedthatanexplosion of vapour cloud, as happened at Flixborough two years ago, could eak devastation o n a vast scale, just ten miles from the centre of [anchester, and in close proximity to large factories and populous

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The propylene will be stored in traffic 5-6 miles away. Workers fl 80 feet high refrigerated on the site as well as company and Shell's enormous Canington petrochemical plant, in Greater Manches rface tank as feedstock for the- - official safety officers are manufacture o 'particularly apprehensive of The feature ca vapour leakages - it would appeal farmers were being paid Â£600 concern is not similar to a steam cloud, At a planning inquiry t o wna year for Shell to have the refigeration but leakage of vapour a common occurrence o n the site. struct a 400-feet chimney for privilege of pollution. followed by the ignition of a w e In June this year 2500 gallons fume disposal Shell threatened Although Flixborough was volume of gas mixed with air. of crude petrol leaked and spread close the works unless they got popularly reported as the first '---' Further damage could result from -across the Manchester Ship unconditional permission to bu occurrence of a new and closing it for sixteen hours the large amounts of hazardout it. They obtained planning perunprecedented hazard, there h because of the risk of exploawii. -.: s z mission for the new refrigerated chemicals already on the site in fact been 108 such incident It went undetected until h o ~ & ^ ' tank , ~ ~just ~ before local government some 20 million gallons of between 1930 and 1973, and 1 , holders some distance away::;,i-S:y^ flammable chemicals are s t o a reorganisation, leaving new are steadily increasing in size a noticed a strong smell of petrogB.councils far from happy. and this will soon rise to 25 frequency. All of these were ,In 1968 a drizzle of oily raw "SSS Thousands of pounds are paid to million oallons. The close v i c e reported by RA Strehlow at t t to plants used by North west& coated houses and gardens in local farmers every year, as com14th Symposium on Combusti Sale, six miles away and mom. and Air Products Ltd present1 in 1973 (the Flixboroueh nensation for ruined notato crons. One youth was killed additional danger explosion took place in-1974). Even as long ago as 1968 some crippled after an expl+i According to Manchester'sMole Express police have made a survey 1969 Carrmgton village was&^ ='rocked' by an explosion m the -" of Carrmgton village for evacuaethylene plant the year before tion, and have 'major incident' there were two major flies m the plans for stopping and clearing

Against festival chaos1

THE ADAM TRUST regard themselves as a sort of 'Society for the Prevention of Crueltv to 15-25 year-olds' They k t together a couple of years ago after being horrified by police strong-aim tactics against peaceful, fun-loving pop festival-goers Anyone who has forgotten measures by Thames Valley Police to wipe out the W m d ~ festival r 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 make sure that there are no 'niisunderstandings' about rubbish collection, sanitation.

&en gates is to One w y of recycling them. In this one. o n the site of demolished houses in Put West London, Ray Rich, John Sanders and Jeff Wright ha I two hydroponic tanks. The erstwhile (lower-beds and lawns of the Â' ¥% homes are being uted for conventional cultivation but the main aim to show just how much food can be grown with no mil at all. The group achieved impressive yields from a similar project in Kentish TI&.% last year.

meetings and all the other vita matters that sometimes get ov looked -. ....-. The Trust is slowly building a reserve of experience and information which will enabl festivals to take-place without chaos. At the moment they ar amassing details, comments an descriptions of recent festivals that they can publish a distillation of the best advice available. Anvone who would ..-. to contribute their observations to this project should write to the Trust, as indeed should anyoni who would like details of futu. festivals and the Trust's activities. Please send SAE to Adam TI 30 St Mary's Road, Ditton H ~

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-'+a 7 ITaste of honey 2

REPORTS JUSTIN of what &y be the world's biggest, and ;nastiest, ecodisaster. According to our Long Island correspondent the main New York City sewage works exploded in June, pro:bably because of a pressure buildup, and the consequences were far from pretty. Two kids were bathing nearby, one of whom d o t

;

'honey-run', the boat-trips ma4 from NYC to dump raw sew&gi usually in the valley cut by (be Hudson in the continentalshefc.,. The part of the conshelf ug-mat.:; not of sufficient capacity totaf"".?:' all the sewage put into it, and oceanoera~hersr e w r t that the stuff isnow creep& inexorabi

...

Undercurrents 17

TO PARLIAMENT, to see the glorious people's Select Committee on Science and Technology (Energy-Resources Sub-Committee) doing whatever it is they do. Just two days before Bennergy '76 one of the crucial question questions was whether the National Energy Conference was going to be a 'fix' or a piece of 'opinion management'. The Dept. of Energy, who were giving evidence, actually raised the nerve to deny it was either, but we'll come to that in just a minute. Five DEn men appeared beofre the SubCommittee, including the Deputy Secretary and the Policy and Conservation UnderSecretary, as well as Walter Marshall,the Chief Scientist. The former are Marshall's superiors but he sat in the middle and did most of the talking, occasionally delegating questions to them. My doubts about who's to head the Science Policy Staff when the Cabinet finally geis one grow smaller by the day. Marshall showed decided enthusiasm for energy conservation and admitted to having insulated his own house. It can be no coincideuce that from that day unto this the temperature in London hasn't fallen below 8O0.

Heaven sent

48 BLISTERING HOURS later, Church House, Westminster, exudes an odour of s W sanctity. Beneath the curved white dome of the conference chamber, inscribed in gold with , Biblical quotations and entered through heavy double doors marked 'Clergy'and 'Laity', the assembled worthies of the C of E have. to paraphraseW.S. Gilbert, spent the last few centuries doing nothing in particular and doing it very welL Not quite the place you'd expect our dynamic Eneigy Secretary to choose aa the venue for the first NationalEnergy Conference of that thrusting new Petroledm Exporting Country, the United Kingdom. As the morning's speeches droned on into the afternoon and the effects of DEn wine began to manifest thenkwlves, the contrast between the ecclesiastical surroundings and the energetic proceedings became pleasantly blurred. In the twinkling of an eye I was transported to the Vatican where it seemed all the C a r d i i and Abbots, all the Bishops and Archbishops of the world had been summoned by Pope Benedict I to advise him on a complex doctrinal problem: the Energy Gap. There was general agreement that North Sea OH, while enriching us beyond our widest dreams for 5,25 or even 50 years or so. would eventually run out and leave us with the dreaded Energy Gap. This would obviously have to be filled with something, but on the question of what that something might be the disagreement was complete. For most of the morning the assembled laity was treated to an elegant mixture of special pleading and back-slabbing by their eminences Cardinals Hawkins of the Central Electricity Board. Ezra of the National Coal Board. Rvder of the~ritishGas Corporation, HiU of the Atomic Energy Authority and Keaiton of the 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 Energy Gap. But they were also, somehow simultaneously, unlikely to survive the decade unless the grossly unfair advantagesenjoyed by their coinpetitors wtthdrawnforthwith. Self-styled

'moderates' such as Archbishop Watkinson of the CBI and Father Frank Chapple of the TUC, took a neutral stance on this controversy. They weren't fuĂ&#x192;Ë&#x2020; how the Energy Gap was filled, so long as whatever filled it didn't threaten profits, jobs, or both.

Scots free?

The first sign of a challenge to the tacit assumptions of the convocation came from Presbyter Gordon Wilson of the Scottish National Party, who politely declared that Nora Sea Oil was Scottish oil, over which the new Scottish Assembly would make it their business to gain control. Worse-still they would want to "associate themselves with the OPEC group of countries" and, to capit all, they felt that Scotland could do without any more nuclear power stations. Wilson conceded.that Scotland's Oil was as non-renewable as everyone else's and would eventually run diy, though he felt that conternation would postpone the Energy Gap (in Scotland, at least) until the 21st century. But he was quick to emphask that the Scots, as well as h o b the bulk of the UK'Soil resources,%eh an ideal position to exploit wind and wave power, and intended tobab-the lion's share of the UK's renewable resources, too. That didn't go down too woU with the Sassenachs. This first fleeting mention of renewable energy resources was echoed by Abbot Arthur Palmer, chairman of the aforementioned Energy Resources Sub-Committee, which, it seems,is particularly impressed by proposals for a huge tidal power station in the Severn Estuary. (A site which falls, by a curious coincidence, within the good abbot's parish.) A note of gentle radicality was then injected by C a r d i i Avebury of the Conservation Society. Almost apologetically he questioned the need to maximise growth, doubted the supposed correlation between economic growth and energy growth, and denied the very existence of the alleged Energy Gap altogether. These points were amplified in a less gentle fashion by Pastor Walter Patterson, fraternal delegate from the Society of Friends of the Earth, but for almost everyone else economicgrowth-and energy growth were external verities, ends beyond dispute: only the means were subject to negotiation. Radicality of a somewhat different hue was oedalled bv the Rifht Reverend Enoch Power. represent& the f& Free Presbyterian ~ h u r c h o f ~ h a n k i l l ~ o awho d , argueil that since only God was capable of devising a coherent energy policy the politicians should leave such matters to be settled by His appointed instruments, the subtle and mysterious forces of the market. Power's sermon was hotly contested by Brother Mick Mffiahey, fiery worker priest from the Scottish co&iieldS, Who declared that "Mother Nature does not react to market forces." The bombshell of the conference came from Archbishop Flowers, chairman of the Royal Commission on hviro-tal Protection, who delivered what many interpreted to be a deathblow to prospects for a British fast breeder reactor. "We believe that nobody Should rely for something as basic as energy o n a method that produces a by-product as dangerous as Pluto*," he declared, adding *this 7

mortal injuries were delivered to the nuclear colossus 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 abandoning or indefinitely postponing the SGHWR programme was greeta 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 them just a few orders for nukes. From the union side Brother Alan Hammond of the EETPU expressed d i ~ u s t that his members' jobs were being j e o p u d i i and challenged B e n n d i to deny that it was "only a matter of time before the SGHWR was terminatedw- a challenge which Bennedict declined. But in spite of the imminent demise of the nuclear programme the happiness of the Alternative energy sources lobby was not quite complete. Whatever had 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 energy demand by 2025? Well, the Solar Energy Society wasn't even invited to attend, and though the Society's representative, (who smuggled himself in as a Royal Institution delegate), asked three times to address the meeting, thrice he was denied. Behind the scenes of open government DEn shows that when it comes to inscrutable suppression it can teach the Vatican a thing or two.

Dragon teeth ON THE PHONE to Leeds I tell Charles Wakstein about the apparent collapse of the nuclear industry but he's still sceptical and says hell continue his anti-nuke campaign for the time being. Readers of Undercurrents 16 will recall his article about the limitations of nuclea engineers and their failure to learn from experience, and may be interested'to know that he has produced and directed (as they say) a 25-minute colour film on the same subject. Called CasingA Dragon, the film explores the implications of an admission by the AEA Safety Advise that the chances of a major reactor accident in the next 25 years are as higk as 1 in 100. In that unthinkable event there could result as many as 100,000 eases of cancel of one form or another,.centred on the location of the reactor but spread far and wide. The two major Windscale accidents, 1957 and again in 1973, leave one in little doubt that such massive destruction is well within the capabilities of the people up there. *Asa professional engineer I'd known some really clever enrineers in the nuclear business and i thought that with people like them around it could be made safe enough," says Wakstein, **butwhat I've learnt while making fliis film has completely changed my mind. There have been so many unbelievable stupid mistakes and anyone with the confidence to wade through the official reports and read between the lines can see just that,Wakstein is prepared to travel around with hi; .fSm and answer any questions arising from it. He is particularly keen that members of trade unions should see it because they are "best -faced to put pressure on the nuclear establish -t to make things safer." ~0~further details writeto him at 2 Elenhem Crescent, Leeds 2. (0532 445579). o r watch out 1 s onBWTVsOpen ,

HIS 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 o f our eekly meetings t o which you can invite yourself by ringing one o f our 'phone numbers. Only rarely and with reluctance do we vot id those o f us who are activists do not demand a finely honed party line. Our commitment is largely t o the dissemination o f usefu formation. What's changed is that up till now, much of the work has been done by Godfrey Boyle, our founding editor, and Sally Boyle. adfrey has now landed himself a lectureship in the technology faculty at the Open University id has now indicated that he wishes to have a somewhat less dominant role in the running of Undercurrents and relieve us o f e burden of finding him the modest salary he's been drawing from the past few issues. I n future, therefore, key functions - t iitor, Features Editors, Reviews, Production. Distribution, and so forth will be revolving posts, altered for each magazine accL.g to who i s available and who We think likely t o be competent. (And anyone can become part o f the deciding group simply by owing up often enough). ~ h s w e ' v e t r i e dt o d o i s to maintain maximum fluidity and flexibility without losing that small amount of internal selfcting each magazine are taken m on the latest issue, e, people will know what 16, heard progress reports for d addressed to the title rather

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ner Technologies

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The features editors for this 'ssue are.-d

Elen and Peter Somr

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it everybody likes or understands inner technology because its methodology doesn't always follow the text-book lines o f 'pu

ence. These inner technologies are important because theyare practically useful and because they may tell us more about ality' - or indeed if such an absolute exists. Basically we think technology is what works anddi-e is the technique 01 'erence. Rather than fly away from ley research, dowsing, theimplications o f Kirliariphotography, the possibilities of v1 wer and the like because normal 'objective' testing is difficult, we prefer to tackle the problems head on. Even whe the mind andthe role o f the experimenter play anintrinsic part in what happens, there are still tests of acceptibilit, ,. be made and we intend-to find them.

. consciousness. By 1967, for example,

2.11

an unprecedentednumber of people were taking the journey into their souls

lioce the discovery of leys in 1921 by Alfred Watkins there have been dozens o f objective investigations ~ c h e r exercising s their own intuitive pttern-making w i n the ley matrix. We all stand in awe, particularly, o ~ o h Michell's n outstanding wrk. Amidst the welter o f this creative and inspirational renaissance, however, it is w s time to attempt to glimpse the integrated for& however ghostly, of the mcient understanding. Towards this end Ioffer the following notes drawn from six fears' involvement with the subject and a number o f revelatory events which Ihave wen fortunate enough t o experience. The- Ancients made no distinctions, as to the following uses of the subtle is do, between inner and outer reality energy: subjective miqd-changeexperien3 them it was all one continuum. They ces; objective manifestation of psychic entities; the fertilisation of land and seed, -..i would study the objective universe as part {he job o f understandingtheir psychic possibly even as a means of levitational perience and vice versa. The prehistoric transport. I suggest the most important of these uses would have been the objec?* code we are slowly rediscovering makes it tive manifestation of psychic entities. $bar that the mechanics o f creation were These iwteltigences were known as 'gods' well understood. The patterns by which but we nowadays tend to refer to them $2 formless energy manifests itself i n our as 'archetypes'. Virtually every ethnic - tftne/space universe were tabulated. The group in the world has a myth somewhere K route from energy to matter was mapped. that refers to the ancient forefathers M i t h i n the ancient structures are the 22 being able to 'talk with the gods'. It is proportions, patterns and ratios that are fashionable today to explain this as being echoed in growing things, in shells, galaxa meetingbetween the human species ' ies, planetary systems, atemic networks and extra-terrestrials who were passing and'so on. This proportional and geoby thousands of years ago. I suggest that metric information displays the synthesis this theory reflectsour conditioning by d i n n e r and outer reality, o f macrocoss" mic and microcosmic creation: the extemporary 'space-age', mechanical thought-patterns. 1 think'the matter patterning of all nature which includes . consciousness as well. Amongst the more revelatory and complex than - debris of this former knowledge we have, neighbourly spacemen. The Ancients, the various religious glyphs: the 'Star o f possessingthe full knowledge o f the David'; mandalas, swastikas, crosses, yin 'interface' area between energy and yang symbol (the central union of two matter (or spirit and form, void and root two spirals?) etc. Each one a precis plenum, etc) were able to manifest on of a whole system of understanding that a visual aural and possibly tactile level - simuitanaously encompassed subjective the knowledge-holdersof the universe and objective experience and which is and communicate directly with them. -ow almost forgotten. The question whether these manifested As we discover from the earlier work entities were of a physical or psychic nature does not arise because it is all one continuum - the patterns of our minds are the patterns of the stars. Thus the inherent wisdom of' nature regulated human affairs. This 'Golden Age' of understanding has faded but there are s t i l l remnants of the old energy. Remnants such as and current spasmodic pt nena point modern magical ahdmediumistic events; semi-active standing stones; eteinental occurrences at' pagan siqs'and above all - the lights i n the sky, the images in the heavens, the UFOs: 1 wish.to dwell ' on UFOs for a few moments because of all khecurrent 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 db not s t u e thestupendous evidence will deny: . Some UFOs display the cosmic, impersonal intelligence (lights, c o l e # s ~ ~ m b o l s )a,few are archetypal'fotros (figures); others are everyone's bad dream (malevolent aerial phenomena) and many are our mechanical a/Ãˆ coos reflected back (the 'nuts ,and hottt spacecraft type). Like so many . jnterfa&mmena *&&neither Scholar's Bridge, the most'h'aunted place dek m i n d s - ~ ~ e f t t i dhiyour environment, But there'is a link - our in Britain: it i s also nart of a lev-line

and

time i n history. Policemen (by the dozen). Midland housewives (by the score), even BBC reporters and many hundreds o f 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 'ufologists' 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 i s seriously inadequate. It i s 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 i s of proven mythological validity.

This map of Leicestershireshows the coincidence of paranormal events with megalithic sites. Triangles indicate stones dots are paranormal events, ghost or pFC sightings, etc. The areas enclosed by dotted lines arcplaces with a history o f unusual geophysical events. UFOs, elementals, ghosts, demons, gods and amorphous energy packets all these have theirplace in the interface area. The Ancients knew the place and function o f each entity and controlled the mechanics of its appearance. Because of their deep understandingof the actual patterns of existence together with their ability to produce the energy of fusion (which seems to have been some sort o f catalyst) the Ancients could move awareness individually and $ollectively between the relatiw poles o f energy and matter. This practical expertise was the apex of an awesome pyramid of cosmological understanding, the pieces o f which we are gradually picking up and putting back together again;~e are acquiring, with difficulty, the non-compartmentaliied thinking of a science/relieion that . predates and dwarfs even'thegreat wi! dom o f oriental wligions. Ibelieve i t i proving to be t @ ~ authentic revelation of our New AgePaul Devereaux

SAVE YOUR OWN SEED ou don't have t o buy seed i n photographic packets. Lawrence D. Hills shows the ays and pitfalls o f collecting your own seed. This is a much shortene xcellent pamphlet, price 50p from H DRA, Bocking, Braintree, Essex

EVER SINCE the Cistercian monks o f Coggeshall Abbey domesticated the carrot i n the 12th Century, we have grown the seeds that our Nation o f gardeners need. Our seedsmen spend their lives trying to stop our vegetables returning to the weeds from which they grew. They keep our beet from becoming Beta vulgaris maritima, a sea shore weed (which is why salt is used as a fertiliser for suga beet), and our cabbages, brussels spro and savoys from becoming Brassica oleracea, which only survives wild o cliffs and rocky islep,,whi$rabbi! never reached. ;,:+:?9 Every vegetable fri every country began as a weed, just as our beet, our cabbages and our carrots did, and ea of them is struggling to get back to i past. Our seedsmen throw out these throwbacks which they call 'rogues' t keep our vegetables true, n o t only t improvements that are our heritage perhaps a thousand years o f ga but thevery latest products o f genius, 2; :4*-. .=..*-:-

true to type. But most are h duced by deliberate cross breeding and selection throughout even Centuries, and therefore i t i s a good idea to grow .. only one variety in your garden. You may not be able to control your neighbours bees, but you have guard. Bees hate mixing nectar a en. I f they start o f f on peas they ick t o them until they have finishe e job, making a beeline back to the ve t o take on another load. Seedsmen simply put a hive beside ne lot o f antirrhinums, and another eside the pink ones, knowing that e I stick to the job i n hand, becau? y worker wandered from pink t o How, there would be a first classr I Trades Unionists should keep b So buy a kind like Kelvedon Wonde., hich has mildew resistance, and rapid rowth so i t can be sown for succession,

i n potato chitling trays (unwanted until Spring) with opened out Colour Supplements on the bottoms stacked one on top o f the other for free air circulation in a dry shed. When the pods split and twist shell out the beans by hand, discar misshanen. ... .~affa 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 same way and harvested in August as.dry 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 o f the Fiskeby V variety in gardens where this germinated in 1974. The second type o f bean is the runner, the 'pole bean' o f the USA which is not hardy and i s sown i n May. Sow .s&~I?-"Â¥ ' ,.:> , seed o f your favourite kinds i n boxes i n Nevert?ysztobrate.W m e t a cold frame in March and plant them catalogued as an 'F.I.Hybrid'. out i n early May to give the seedlings grown by seedsmen as two pure lines,.. a flying start. When you raise for seed, often not ~articularlvstriking. but when Â¥ifjust as with peas, you leave the first large they are artificially pollinated with each pods and the new few generations beother's pollen, the result has the vigour cause they will ripen first, free from o f the first cross. This entails more work pollen o f any other runner i n your than normal seed growing which is why ind p u t i n a series o f batches. Res, garden or a neighbours. these F.I. Hybrids are always more expen,ow for seed from the firstsowing, .,, When these are dry and brown, sive, but they can be worth the money. do not pick any o f its pods. As the b towards the end o f September, pick If you save seed from them this vigour 'eon opening the bees will bring them and spread them out i n trays like i s lost. Kelvedon Wonder pollen from the latef apart from the broad beans to split and twist, ready There sown rows and you have high odds on ;*$ to shell for next springs sowings. the saving in money. By raising Our Own keeping your stock true, If you like a seed we can keep varieties in cultivation The third class of bean is the 'French' maincrop, choose one kind and sow it E,@ which the seed trade has discarded despite bean, which came from Peru via Spain, an early variety like twice, their advantages t o gardeners, and which p a n Rese,.e your row always in following the equally 'French' marigold. or now may not be sold without a Â£10 This is also May sown, but because it i s the first sown batch because you are not fine because they are not on the National a low bush it is easier t o protect. Sow only twing to get your peas as far as your seed i n pairs a foot apart i n early and European Registers. green pods for eating, but you want to April, and two feet between rows. harvest some o f them for drying, and As your beans grow, tie them t o a stake. that is not easy in some summers. Fit a polythene bag over each pair t o Your seed row will gradually dry o f f 'K;T~;* make a 'cloche' for the early part of the *#with leaves turning yellow and pods light -. %r .brown. When the first pods t o ripen begin growing season. French beans for eating will produce ;^$'- .. z:<+ to split at the lower ends, cut the pea a heavy crop, provided they are kept ulms o f f levei with the ground and picked, but those for seed need t o be them on sacks or polythene bags high and away from the risk o f wet soil Market gardeners prefer sun, or in wet seasons, hang them and slugs. that can be cleared in a cou in a shed with newspaper below Parsnips are best lifted i n the same and packed off to market when the price t o catch any shed seed. When the pods way so that the best roots can be is hi*. Gardeners, however, want crack crisply they can be shelled by hand chosen, and replanted in December and 'varieties that will last till every one in into bags and hung from the shed roof January, with great care t o avoid the row is eaten, have a goodflavour and to defeat mice or rats. Seed for raising damaging the skins, because parsnips be twit\ and hardy through all seasons. needs t o breathe, so do not store in rot easily. They will ripen during August Peas and Beans polythene bags, or jars. and the secret o f good seed i s t o watch There are three types o f bean, four These seeds iritolve the problem o f for when the pods in the king head split it you count soya beans. The first is the and rattle - the sign that the whole plant Broad bean and its relations the field is ready t o cut and hang up t o dry. beans. For seed purposes always sow the These will set into heads o f long black long podded varieties Aquadulce Claudia seeds which should be gathered into i n November, which avoids black fly,

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February and March. Plant them in sunny places with the root tops just below itiaground. -

Beet are even more attractive in eir seeding season. Choose the very s t an&-most shapely foete from these )red te peat and plant them TI Febru/, with the tops just below g r . d 'el in good wett camposted soil. If you mowing Cooks Delight, the best for @eating, choose roots that e than fifteeninches longare andnot two

a centrehe&$ known as the 'king head' which is ready first In August, the side growths come later. When ripening is upright near theand shoots turndraw yellow. themselves Watch the more .

a half inches thick, and discard any

king heat), for when some o f the pods

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the rows when you pull from the first sowing of spring in March, so the white time to set to fat - t{owef& @Sup items before there is any othÃbi's6*fÃˆpoH<iabout. W t y a the pods turn yellow and begin to split, showing the btackseeds inside, cut off clean the flower readystems for packeting to dry inand the storing. trays, ttier Seed o f all the brassicas is so cheap that it is hardly worth saving your own, but if you must save it, choose one o f the cheaper varieties because this is like11

seen t o advantage.

The Cabbage Family

,Beets and Other Roots

One of the many differences between

ry seed is designed for two jobs. it has its coded instructions

moisture will collect in the cabbage during the winter, and makes sure that the plants witl grow new shoots from each quarter becoming about two feet hid) and four feet square and a mass o f Brussels sproutsare rather easier. ordinary way, t h e stake them fw&y and atlow the top cabbage shaped'portion to throw up a flower andsetseed in August. The commercial method is to cut the stump down t o the foot in spring and let the side shoots flower.

Grew your crop in*

'brassicas' as they are called are the worst of all subjects for amateur seed so each field gets a turn every nine gardens when you are saving seed to keep your stock moderately true. Your other safeguard is that the seed o f this

and Spinach Start by reserving the first rowof

plantings, but leave good specimens at fifteen inch intervals to grow on for seed

gh (heir secondsunnfter they%% &ow larger and larger, finally reaching few feet. They wHt need staking to support their heavy flower heads, and these should be cut with the main stalksin October, hanging the, great drumstick to dry until December. The seeds inside the flower head should be black, and the flow* should have started to turn yellow before cutting with about a foot of stem. Leek wed 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 teng in water but spread in a thin layer on paper in ah airy place to dry.

Today fewer mid 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 your o w onion sets. There are British firms selling horn grown onion sets, notably Messrs Marshall of Wisbech, h o s e 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 onions, hut pick out any larger than %an inch in dimter for cooking. Le the smaller onesintraystodry out orough~y, remove the foliage and store them in a cool (3SÂ° 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 scononera, 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 nontial 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 fdlowed by the flower steins which should be staked when they reach two ' Feet and retied as they grow to over three feet by Amst. Never out off .taking because the plantscan easily blow Ã ˆ Ã ˆbreaking the roots and'fiimhing the &&crop. Wihave bred onions for &fht

-~--@@@!%

for the extra strength to hold

firm the seed stem. It is cheaper easier to stake them.

than for ordinary picking, t f they when the seeds are black the heads it doe* not matter, for splitting is should be cut off with eighteen inches . caused by dry weather hardening*# of stem. Tie a paper bag over each head, then rain skin and with ventilation holes as for leeks, and full of water, and hang the crop in a dry and sunny are not inhenfed. atmosphere to ripen, ready to husk and miss-shapen tomatoes for seed, or packet for next year's sowing only. perfectones off thÃ fame plant because. Spinach is easy seed, but choose the a tendency to have miss-shapenfruit$.,. rows for seed just as though they were inherited. Do not take fruit with yvwlettuces, pullidg up the first to bolt until patcha~atthestalkend~becausethat-; only the slowest we left. Leave the also is inherited. A flat brown patch at heads unfit the seeds blacken and the loweft start to 'shed' or come out of the blossom end is caused by calcium . shortage, which can come from too the pods, then pull them; to hung in much potassium sulphate fertiliser. Thjc bunches over newsoaner or the cut ooen* is not inherited, but the seed polythene fertiliser b& which are a ' and Rive poor germination, so, feature of the modern countrvside that use for seed. may int like flint arrowheads. ' Cut your fruit from side to side, This is the round seeded summer scoop out the core into a soup plate spinach. The prickly seeded winter and wash the pulp well in water, me. variety sown in August, or September while rubbing the seed gently with ti should be saved from those which best tips of the fingers, changing came through the winter, which may once or twice white you are well mean a large area of ground tied up the seed from the pulp, and i f these were (lotted over the bed. Sow the seeds in* strainer to dra other crops in between and pull the seed thewashed seed on a sheet of spinach as it ripens in May. The seed of both varieties last for about three yews. ideally a sheet of blotting paper and left t o dry overnight in a warm room . Perpetual spinach or spinach twet - they can be packeted in two days lasts up to six years. It should be-iftwn It takes roughiy ten pounds of fru i n Aprilcr May amt tift b = o f seeds, which is unpictat to make sure it the winterand throw up mber family differ like a beet ready to save feed id the same* /' the other vegetables in this boo 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 Qualityfrom outdoor plantingscan be WOTI under the polythene 'cloches' recomnended for french beans for seed, but they must be grown under glass to gain the time they need to ripen their seed. We in Britain enjoy good tomato , 1 ripening weather about three years in five, with a wet summer full of-potato blight (which also attacks tomatoes and Are i are unfortunately no resistant varieties) making us five up in disgust. only to &e our 6eig6bours rejoicingi" ripe fruit. Let us assume vou have two dozen tomato plants coming ready to pick because they have separated male and before the key date o f September 6th. female flowers, just like bananas. Each good fruit will hold b e t w h 150 The new 'Burpless' cucumbers are and 250 seeds and it will keep at least F.l hybrids so cannot be saved successthree years, so you have plenty to fully, andso b Femina, the almost aif choose from. For outdoor fru&eariifemale flowered variety. wChinese ness is the main quality, so put a label Long Green and the Japanese varietfeh against the first plants to ripen fruit on Kaga and Kariha can be saved and so of their first trusses. Ignore the-first two course can the old ridge varieties which trusses for seed but note how they are greatly inferior. i t i5 worth watch- ripen, for you want seed from the plant ing for new outdoor cucumbers that that produces the most fruit before are notF.1 s and bm<Ãˆathem, just as September 6th, and $is worth keeping my- first employer did w e r forty years notes of your three best performThe third and fourth trusses w!)f< 4pr4we best d, so chme Se , >-= $8ur plants in pots and train

end row for seed

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 o f each fruit bulges you do not want to spread t h i s nonserious 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 t o disease that is reputed to come from good feeding. If you want to grow large potatoes ' aking or because you dislike

"'laboratory at Cambridge. Ail seeds can be tested in an airing cupboard. The temberature should bi 68OF, and if you put a thermometer inside this will show how near you ar to the maximum of 86OF. Then count

normal test thae is three weeks but'

Seed Potato Saving

'home seed raisers i n fact is that because

A CC-A-tWTER STUDY OF 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 hav been working in this area for some time. They describe what they've been doing and report on their preliminary findings. 9-quoits (i.e. three or more stones-:; piled on each other) 7crosses

w f e e l that the results obtained so far aresufficiently definite and interesting t o justify setting them before the public at this time.

xty ways o f conhere are nine a ructine tribal lavs. " , , nd every single one o f them is rigk Rudyard Kipling (In Neolithic Times) 1925 the Herefordshire antiaukrim the hypMheIfred Watkins put i that the ancient sites of pre-Roman ritain were deliberately aligned with i e another. In his book describing the ypothesis, The Old Straight Track ;arnstone 970) he christened oignments 'leys'. I n the fifty years stnce n his theory has never been scientificly tested, though many 'ley hunters' ave succeeded in establishing t o ther wn satisfaction, i f t o no-one else's, the tality of the ley system. There were iree reasons for this omission Orthodox scientists and archaeolosts saw no reason t o investigate phenoiena they 'knew' t o be imaginary There was a shortage o f reliable ) tidence i) Before the advent of the computer; ' iere was a natural reluctance t o underike the backbreaking tdsk o f tabulating ie many thousand possible alignments "etween a set o f sites and calculating the 'best fit' straight lines through them. 'or example, one hundred sites - a lodest number i n practice - would snerate 161,700 triads (sets o f three oints) and 3,921,225 tetrads (four oints). Such i s the awful power o f the iws of combination and permutation. The lack o f reliable data was made ood by John Michell i n 1974 when he ublished a description o f the alignments i a t the had found between the fifty lus surviving standing stones o f theand's End peninsula in Cornwall (The lid Stones of Land's End, Garnstone). , hese stones, although some o f t h e n re twelve feet high, are small wellefined sites compared with those used y earlier less critical ley-hunters. . levertheless, Michell claims that they re aligned over distances o f u p t o i n kilometres to 'rifle barrel' accuracy. his display is the first independent iest o f his claim. This study is the first research undertaken and it is n o t yet complete, 1

National Odd references of 45,

Object 1. T o check the accuracy o f t h c k ? alignments between the 53 sites descdbed by John Mtchell-in T-iÃ OldStonesof Land's End 2 TO @,,@axe allof the other alignments between these sites. tabulate the alignments be ofrandomly .set i s

.e. t o the nearestmetre) using rdnance Survey maps and apt< -

e remaining stones were disc<wr< -^(naps. +te has accwately surveyed the l o c @ + ~ of n four o f these b u t onty estin fed thelocation of.* others. references of the

Method

ntiw @.frei~*

here. tt Issufficient *state thatthey work and that further detail; can be ohtamed b y anyone who-is interested. 2. The computer was used to calculate the best fitting straight fine through each o f the 23,426 possible triads (set of three points) by t h e & n d d s t t a s t i c a l method method minimisof linear regression. athe of the displace-

aur standards

of a ~ e t p v~ y p tabulated. The t w o standards that wereapptied were: i) w i d t h n e e d e d t o c w a l l t h r e e points t o b e less than 10 metres ii) ratio of width to length to be less than 1:100 6.e. 1 metre per ki~ometrt) 4. I t is important to note that these s W a r & are artrftraty;& fact they derive f& ahstudy Ã§r$hepi-e~miftarywm me did. T h e ifno t h m of t q s that says how m o w they should be. Some & w s m that we haw spoken to consider that leys-are numore than.t&'metns

wide.

5. &t fitting straight IinesWife catq&+la@& the same far+wtwtia) .higt^orkalignments itart the fffst run

hadrevealed.

6. ?%e'-q&se thesimulateddata.

@@a'%

& carried out on

1:2SOO (25 inch: 1 mile) Ordnanc Survey piari of thearea. 5. The Ordnance Survey states that positions taken from these maps are saf kt to s t a t i s t i d uncertainty ~ ~ in the mapping process. The average errof is not more than 3.5 metres but? reairs suggest that the positionstaken

accurate to 1 6. Randomnumber tables were used t< generate a set of imaginary references

National Grid as their reat eounteqans This ensured that alignment (if any) destroyed in the si distinctly n o n - e clustering was

kits 1. John Michell fists 22 alignments between the 53 sites, We fqnd that% of these alignments match our st* The t w o that faded are both atfgnedoh 'site 28 (the ~ e r r y ~ a i d e stone n s ote^E

One Â¥Hgnme is 1 2 mew6 wirfÃˆaMl other is 2metfes.wide bat only'%Mta> metre tang. Both-aee probably aftgnat o f the circle

,,.

-i--in"?% : e n Michell lists 53 sites comprising: 4 stone circles

e h p not

YE* ,-!

The average width of t h ; % f c ~ ! " ~ metre, the maximum width is 7 metres and 7 alignments -.. , are exact fits (to the

;*Ă&#x201A;ÂĽ -.. v*..

~-~ . .. .

h s t 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 we regard Line 1 and II as forming a single five-point line, while John Mic 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 1 - 6 - 7 - 8 (width 3m, length 4.6 km) 46 -1 16-47-48 (width 7m, lengt &?. 4.8 km) 4 9 -'I6 -17 (width 2m, leng ,., -,-3 8.7 km) a n d we foundtwo more: ;i,shes 2 - 12 - 16 -17 (width 14m, length .*,. . . 6.7 km) ( t h i s i s closeto, but distinct from; the "e- * ?previous line;it is in fact an extension of a triad (2 - 12 - 16) listed by John ' < ~Michell) ~. ; ~

. .

running through it. This stone stands near Land's End itself, opposite the First and Last Inn. In addition t o the three alignments listed by John Michell. 4-9-16-17 20 -1 8-1 7 . we found: 2 -1 2-1 6-1 7 (a and three new triads:

average width of these 7 lines i s 4

tetrad and only 34 triads (i.e. two-thirds o f the yield from the real data). 7. On average, each real site lies on three lines; each simulated site on only two.

.<2

8. he sites that score an above average number of lines onthe realdata, score below average on thesimulated run (e.g. site 17 already mentioned). And vice versa: the bottom 9 real sites lie on only 7 lines between them; the same 9 simulated sites lie on 28 lines. This appear.

&ires) isthe sime as thatof 1 betthe simulated sites.

Statistical Remarks

L I

1. It is easy to show that if the sites are scattered at random over the map, then the number of alignments with three, four, five etc. sites on them will (approxinnately) follow a Poisson distribution with parameter k, where k is the expected number of sites on a line drawn between any two sitesand (roughly) the probability that any line will have one or more sites on it. The Poisson analysis must be used cautiously as no experiments hive been done so far t o see how well it fits results calculated from an actual set of random points. It does, however, have the merit o f being familiar and easy t o calculate. There i s an added reason for caution in this case: it i s obvious t o inspection, and easy to prove statistically,"-that the , points arenot scattered at random but :, clustered into two groups. Nevertheless the analysis casts aninteresting light on got. the results Mhave 2. The formula f o r k is:

4.9km. widthlrn..

unaercurrents 17

THE W D STONES OF LAND'S END. From jehn Whell*s or@ddata-base.

unaercurrents I

1. Boscawen-un Circle walled track towards B - Cross A - Stone 3

We are fortunate that Land's End i s

A is the area of map (140 km2); These gjw-a<esult f9r k of.0.025.

3. T h i g - m s that, on average, onfy one line in f&ty will have a third site on it. The number of possible lines between

5esuIt occurring by chance alone {what statisticians call the significance ley&) as we do not know the actual probibjki~distribution of alignment numbers. '%at we can say is that the expected umber of pentads, according to the =foisson formula, i s only 0.004. This &eankrwghly, that we would expect get one-pentad by chance from 250

Cornwall, Truro) was being prepared while Michell was working on 7Be Old Sgnes of Land's End and was in fact published just b e f m it. It lists a further sixty-odd sites, mostiy crosses, that there is no a priori reason t o omit. 50 our ne&.task i s to tabulate all the alignmen6 between t h i s enlarged set of sites. This presents a problem as the time .required for the tabulation goes as the cube of the number o f sites, i.e. it is increased eightfold to about 20 :lours on our present system<pius another twenv for a simulation ~ 0 )SO - it may be a while before we get it done. We also intend to do some studies . of random sets of data t o see how good a fit we get to the Poisson formula. This problem has excited'some controversy

be question we must ask is: Afe these

T m e d result being the work of ?lance alone and rejecting the null yvpothesis if these odds are higher L %-' bsome conventionalqgure, 20 or 100 to 1. This straighfforwarc

results of a simulatio and not with a formula which must always be only approximately valid. The usefulness of the Poisson formula is that it provi&s a quick estimate of what is to be expected i n a particular case. The nsul~k often quite &tening: it i s wipdshg hcmbmmprki~ m e of the 'sutprising#rewkts that Ieyhunters have found actually are. This rePort,was first produced for an exhibition which was held at the Institute of Con@mporaryArts during April 1976, and it was subseqpentiy published in m e Ley Hunter. The response from the ley hunters has been vew disappointing. We had hoped.that we would be offered other groups of data for analysis, but, SO far, neon6 has approached us. The set of programs i s a dual-purpose tool - it can examine relatively large numbers of potential ley-matkkrs and then l i s t the triads which are worth further investi* tion; or, it can be used to evaluate leys that have already been found. We would appreciate some response from the outside world, so get in touch with us please!

un Circle - Stone 4 - Stotte 5. Thi deviates by no more than one degree from alignment I.From the Circle Stone 4 stands out on the skyline,and when stone i s approached fromlhe direction the circle, Stone 5 appears in view behi it. These two stones are placed like surveyor's rods, one on the near and one cthe far side of a ridge as seen from the Circle. Ill. Baawen-un Circle - fallen stone 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 November 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

was probably once a stone between them, visible from both. This w d d have been ~ e c aecattle trwgh rests on what may be the fragments o f a fallen longstone. Thus between the Circle and the sea a1 Pezner Point are three standing and on possibly two, fallen stones piaced on a s*ai&t line. IV. stone 2 - Bosawen+n Circle Stone marked 011.6-inch O.S. map at 39782594. V. a n t r e of disc barrow at Botrea, 4313133 house8, 40423076 - Cras B Circle - Cross C - Cross D. Vl. Boscawen-un Circle - Stone 18 cross E. V l I. Stone 19 - Boscawen-un Circle stone 20 - approximate site of 1-t tone at 45592648 - St Clement's Isle

m e Boscawen-n Circle Mgnments

This plan show how @e six a1 that converge on Bwawen-un

Prafesor Thorn. Note that we regard

&rid&Survey) was the foundation which this study has been built. Robeft Forrest of Bury, Lawashire,

Christopher Wren's Beehive

-%-

John Fletcher thinks he haa f o u k the seventeenth cenimry prede-om OF the Undercurrents d b t i v e . At auy rate, he shows us Christopher Wren'sdeaign f o r a g b s b e d i v e . . , I F YOUare the sort-ofperson whothinks dl psychiatrise are mad, then yw're probably also the sort of awkward sod who holds the emphatic opinion that all experts are, by definition, invariabiy wrong. The great radical movements which swept England during the Civil War were of the same unco-operative cast o f mind. Lawyers were fewently distrusted, and their self-sewing ritu'ais and obscure language detested. Diggers and Levellers defended themselves sumssh~ltyon many wasions in wurt, and proposals were made for setting up a c m u n i w based system of justice and law enforcement, which w w l d 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 reorganised, mixing esoteric t n e d i i skills - which were to be made awes* ibte to all members of society - with the older methods of herbal and folk remedies. Education, as Way,was the pesewe of an elite, and strucwred to defend and reinforce that ell@. Each community was t o elect and finance its own school teachers. Those who wished to go on to higher eduqtion first had to be mature in years and have sewed the community. Secondly, to avoid the creation of an artificial ai.xdhic elite which spoke its own esoteric and selfsewing language, students were to sup port themselves throughout their university residence by manual labour during the day,.fdlowed by study in the evening - Maoism without either the Ma0 or the ism. Seventeen new universities *re proposed, of which Durham University is the$only suwivor. All the radicals of the Civil War were products of that most hcient and venerable English tradition, now thankfully reviving, of self-education. They firmly wlieved that all formal education, whether private or state, indoctrinates and automates, and that the only true, iberating education, is self-education. 4s can be seen, the instinctive direction n which many English people were moving in the late 1640's and early l650's, left little room for experts !very man his own expert! Such an ~ttitudewas exemplified in the field >fscience and technology, and is why he period is so instructive and encourag ng for readers of Undercurtenis. Late medieval man lived in a world Iery similar to our own - one of endles igid and remote physical, mental and piritual hierarchies - politicqlly, socialy, intellectually, and religiously, he was me tiny pact in a vast n'iachine, and felt IIIthe fashionable feelings of alienation, )oredom, anonymity, etc, etc, Then, over ,period of about a hundred years, came he Renaissance. The translation of the Vile into everyday language removed stroke the necessity of the weighty

. <

,.,,

. .,. .

nature, mother =dm-er o f the universe, shines forth in diverse subjects, and takes diverse names, z7 according as it communicates itself divercely'. Gerard Winstanley was i n the same wadition when he wrote in the Law of F&m in 1652 T o b o w the =re@ o f nature i knowthe w w k s o f G d . . An., indeed if you would know spiritual things, it is to know how the spirit or power of wisdom atid life, causing motion dr growth, dwe4is.within and governs both the several bodies o f the starstind planets in the heavens above; and the.severa1 bodies of the earth below, as gras*, plants, fishes, beasts, birds and mankind; For to reach God beyond the creation, or t c k!~wwwhat he will be to a man after a man i s dead, if any otherwise than to scatter him. *kt0his essences of fire, earth, water and air o f which he is mnpcunded, i s a knowledge beymd the line or capacity of man to attah to while he lives in this compounded bod)

bureaucracy o f the Catholic Church to intercede between the individual and God. h e vbke as an equal with God, and in the case of many wcb as John Milton, man proved to be cmsiderabty more equal than God. The printing press d ~ o c r a t i z e dknowledge. The fundamental revolutionary $nosis of the knaissance, just as today, was the realisation by man o f his ow e x p i d e , almost infinite potential. Whether it has been lhrough Zen Buddhism, LSD or rock musk, we likewise see the pessibility of ceasing to be qangefi in a strange land, and of living in harmony ivith the vast natural energekand forces of the uniherse around us. Thit is the vision .that~~damental~y$rives us - the d c r o c a m and the m x r o c o m as one and it c m u l s e d the Renaissance. and all the resuigent gnom

Medieval W c

This new reverGnce for nature brqught about a massive new interest in astrolw, Wn's Natural Ham Walter Raleigbargued: 'kf we cannot deny Science and technology but that God hath given virtue to springs as the means of achkvin and fountains, to coM earth, toplants and building a harmonic paradise on d. stems, m i d s , a ~ to d the excremental The F&l of blan was taken as wmWising parts of* basest living creature, why the lao f man's n w m i h a r m , wi* should we rob the beautiful stars of their t h e u n d - s t z h w a n d lwhwbgy wwkiqpowers? For, seeingthat they are would ~ h e ~ ~ ~ manymin number . and of eminent beauty The e a t impetus t o this modern )and magnitude; we may not think that i n scimtifw movement came with the mthe treasury of his wisdom who is infinite, discovery in fifteenth century Italy of there can be wanting, wen for every star, ancient platonic, hermetic and cabalistic a peculiar virtue and operatim; as every - Braking the Iiermetic texts (* herb, plant, fruit, flower, adorning the Seal). The Cabala texts illustrate face o f the earth hath the like'. Astrology perfect harmony of the universe w a n o t applied to prediction so much as mathematical terms, and the mo to advice and counselling Queen Elizadedopment of +luth~aticSS abeth, omw well, Essex, Charles 11, the attempts of Renaissance magi/ William Harvey, *den and Newton scientist~to avail them~lvesof the m e all regularly consulted their friendly pbwers as God and the Ancients a local astrologers - Diggers wanted conjure themselves into Eterni astrology available on their version of Alchemy and astrology were li the National Health - and when the given immnsb boosts by herm great solar eclipse of 1652 arrived bn cabalistic texts which joyously 'Black Monday' to widespread astrdogied the pantheistic creed that divine cal predictions of the imminent millenenergy isimmanent in all material ium, the rich left London in droves creatim. Ihaiscience Was much a feat equalled only by the Chartist more all-embrwing in its brief than its uprisings of 1848 and the near Geneta modem counterpart - it attempted not Strike of 1911. Copernicus dedicated only t o answer the question how a his work to the Egyptian magician an(. phenomenon operates, but also &Y - a contemporary of Moses, Hermes question which m em science is having Trismegistus, founder of a religion to return to. If you ave God or pan dedicated to the worship of the sun as istic energy immanent in all nature -God - the sun, logically enough as and many Renaissance scientis&/ma God, inhabiting the centre o f the like BN~o, Kepler, Galileo, Coperni universe. Likewise, alchemy was very and Brahe, were pantheists rather than much the province of the social Ehristians - then the more you study radicals - as a disgruntled consewaiature, the more you discover d God. tive wrote in 1664 As B ~ n wrote o in 1584: 'The late years o f the tyranny (The Commonweaith) admitted stock 'Thus crocodiles, cocks, onions and weavers, shoemakers, millers, turnips were never worshipped for 2:L: themselves, but the Gods and the masons, carpenters, bricklayers, divinity in croc'odiles, cocks and other gunsmiths, porters, butlers etc to things, which divinity was, is, and will write and teach astrology and be found i n diverse subjects.. You ~hvsic'. One radical alchemist who . . see, then, how one simple divinity Isaac Newton much admired conwhich i s in all things, one fecund fklentially predicted iti If545 that

:g%

. ... "

unaercurrenIs I I nature. b t h of these losses, however, ledge and scientifk discovery availa'ble t d he would shortly be able t o trank all through amOfiee o f Addresses, and . = $ cameven in this life be in some sortmute metals cold. aad . . ...- -- -hase -- , ..- --. - into ..- - -. repaired; the former%y religion and provide a mouthpiece for debaw and dis thus undermim the,entire syswm ,, m,t h & k j ~ . ~ ' & . % k &{:. h'.&\* $ ~ ~ of the practical application of of i n t e r , & t i d 'mbnqoly finan& - TLw,a, . , .&..m i ' & t . d & be ' these disc~veries.As C ~ m e n i "wrote, ~ 'V 'the antichrrstlan beast will be dash~ . d k , ~ ., t ~ ~ are dl b f d o &isas ~ o f the w d d , a# bi nfor&atety, this publii-spiritd . , : n t I e w was shortiy afterwards vidtd mmber,nwre he members o f4arUib's 'lnvisibh Cdlege' p r a ~ t i w d'so wn kamb expertt, t b 9xtensive a U k y . that i t reaches unto l v with m e of the m a t 'tW everything ~ a k man', d taking 'the whole body o f mankind for their care'. Winstanley h l c + w d on this system, prwosing thateach community should eleot two postmaWm,, one of whose jobs w d d k %puq~ciseall inventions, They would & k t and report statistical informatian Wt the health and welfar ' of their m i & ,and would publicise i m m ! W & t i o n from other parts of tbe cmntry feported to them centws. Trade secrets from w U lx.abaWed, m d human com~ t i t k e m Mmr s &an being exmnd& iI n w&titive aonomic Gt r&e, would be cbfmdd into alleviating the human cq-dtim aud producing 06jects that wem be& ~ra&icala d beautiful like William W& ~

me InvidbbC They p r ~ a s w t m d e and d easily t r4atMte p a q & & d ~ i c hd ~ lfifsth m h f w W &husbandw i n

,&versesubjjts as mining& agricultural - then both mainly family indus-

duction, hwww, 'by the abunrhnce of these,we better our Being, beyond &at a t f h t thoughts can be apprehemkd'. TFwwcond book was on the d t k a & af h i t tree$ which, it' was suggested,slw& be planted

and the use of mcchanicitl

md Wdqy,a iq &assid

d Wm*wm @ i mainly; h, te the n W o f man, n a t p t havw its m h d y mxrhge wilh

al &at

;&as im hts 'New AU

~nocencyan$ from hi

b country, lining the throughout t roads and iilia m m w ground. l3ey ww1d provide fiw and abundant fruit, cider, p r r y , domek (honey and fntit fermentation), feed for cattle, wood, shade and beautiful b l o s m s in spring. The third was entitled 'The Reforma coiwnonwdth of &', a collection of ' aft&& a d &ten, and was published in 1635. Eeek&gw popular and coin, mon in seventeenth century England. -Not only wem drinks libmead far mom common in such times* bu$ a bit as v a r i w Frm& re&m today are v&d for the dMhm$&i&s of dwir or 4FfFe~ktWmâ ‚ ¬ w v i ~ d, w areas in thg 1stcentury were renowned

;

Undercurrents 17 ror their particular, and often pkuliar 4, earth, and opening it, lay it under some He goes on t o desribe how to feed bees ;idea. different areas of Britain were hedge, or watl, where ibmay be most with sugar, and repeats the rhyme which ~ a ~ u e d ftheir o r different sort+s.efhmey. subject W the s n , by theheat h e r e o f - i s still used amongst bee keepers today: For mead making, honey 'from dry open it will (a greater part of it) turn into swarm in M~~is worth a load of hay+ ;wntries where there is much wildmaBOts~ which (wi*wt my A swarm i n June i s worth a silver spoon, byme, Rosemary and Flowers is best',. will live upon the remainder o f the A swarm in July isn't worth a fly. utd that from Hampshire, Norfolk and c o r ~ p t i o n .After a while, when they He is also self-sufficiency buff, arguing wound Bisletter was in especially high begin to have wings, the whole putrified fiat if Britain were to prduce more iemnd. It was, in fact, a thriving little carcase would be carried to a place premead, she would be able to cease importndustry, with its own civilisation, and pared, where the hives stand ready, to ing what drained the seventeenth centuv :re was much natural and scientific which, being w h m d with Honey and bdance of as badly as Arab %rest in r o w bees organised fheinselvsweet herbs, the Maggots (after they Oil today french wine. deed, anyone who has ever entered have theit wings) will resort. The gentlehirlpool of a swarm of bees, where 11. Letter from Mr William Mewe, of man of ~ , ~ that~ practised ~ lthisl bout half the swarm area dense clingExperiment used hogsheads (barrels), or Easlingmn* with the nk brown mass, and the other half -.+ mystical experiences he has undergone bigger wine casks instead of hives. hunder r a n d in a circle o f about ten ;&*since constructing a transparent beehive. 4. The New Beehive. A discourse on the L , ~ ~ ~ lards, will know that it is as though 12- yes, folks* this i s the cwrewmdent right-mking of beehives, by that zealous hey have entered a new universe, i n you've all been waiting for. Once more, public-hearted and learned gentleman, h i c h the power o f the swarm is not Undercutrents bripgs you another first, Thomas Browne, Doc'tor in Divinity. )nly physkal, but tangibly psychic and a status symbol to make your neighbours He describes how the Ancients made >venspiritual - I know, I've been in one gasp and the Sunday Times Colour honey without killing the bees. (Right h i l e writing this article! The pamphlet supplement go out of business. BY tire up till the end of the nineteenth century, limed to simultaneously instruct anyone less research in the British Museum (it bees were killed at the end of each low to set up in the production of was a total fluke, actua!ly, I was trying season, to get at the honey). Browne loney - and even the poorest man with %-% :o t find out something abcut the vegetar*hiw a cablist and plamist in he minimum of landcan keep bees Az.$ian ranter from Somerset, John Robins, of divine harmonies, arwes the merits n d to inwire the readership by the pre;%?who claimed to be the oldest man in of round beehivesover quare ones. entation of an ideal commonwealth. $:the world - having been born before Diagram. The pamphlet was entitled: Adam - and that his wife was about to 5. A query upon Doctor Browne. An give birth to the real Messiah. He intendh e Reformed Commonwealth of Bees impassi,oned letter in favour of squa ed to regather the 144,000 members of l e Feminine Monarchy, or the History hives. the lost tribe o f Israel in the Holy Land, of Bees, Showing 6. A Letter discovering a new kind t hwith a d setoff on the ~ ~~~~d Their admirable nature and properties, Excellent food for bees. Grow anise large crowd of enthusiastic followers, Their generation and Colonies, near hives - it 'proves the best means but onIy got as far as London, where he heir gobernment, Loyalty, Art, Industry, of multiplying and k e s p i q them, as as put in Clerkenwell clink for disturbEnemies, Wars, Magnanimity, Etc. also for their b d m g a great stom of ng the peace). Still, you too can be the h e Articles were: honey'. Rub it mside a new hive, and on in Raynes Park t o have a beehive A History of Beekeeping. feed it to bees, which, as a result, will nally designed for you by Christopher ! An Expetiment on the generation o f breed three swarms a year. New hives lees, practised by that great husbandshould be placed close to an old hive 4 final concludins remark from ?anof Cornwall, M Carew. Carew was prior to swarmlng, and the entrance, , Hartlib. 'I am apt to believe that robably the brother of John Carew, d anise. full i t 1 the sun, ~ b b e with n God set Adam in the Garden of h o was executed in 1662 for attempten tohusband and dress it, He meant i g to assassinate Qtarles II, having alto exercise his Industry, not only 7. An impassioned exposition o f wh :ady got rid of his father, Charles ll by n discovering the fruitfulness of perfect anise should not be used with bees. lining his death warrant in 1649. ature, which, in itself, could not but 8. How anise may be got to grow in Dr Arndd Boats Obsew tions upon ause great delight to hi$ understanding, England, as taught in that excellent ?e Experimnt of the Ge.n ration of but also, by exerting his labour and book, called 'The Garden of Eden', ees. This next paragraph should not be ingenuity, to increase by husbandry the as follow: 'Sowe English anise-seeds, !ad by the,([ break off this article to beauty and f~itfulnessof the place, when the Moon is at the fulle, in incident. !late the most exfraonlina~~ until it became equal to the perfection Feb~ary'. laving reached the words 'be read by the' of his own imagination. For although 9. A translate of a letter writen in gradually became aware of this strange there was noth~neimmrfect in Nature High Dutch, communicating a secret w i n g souqd as though the heavens were before the Curse,"yeiall the imaginable for the better ordering and presewing ~rbininginto orgasm, and what should I perfections, which the seminal properties of bees. Diagram. %, on mshing outside, but a huge swarm of the Birth containedl were not actually f bees disappearing down our next door existent at the first instant, but the 10. The next correspondent starts on a eighbour's chimney. We have just spent general point about the theories of the responsibi1i~-of Adam and all succeed. ie last three hours digging the awkward ing men to bring to fmition'. 'If a man, who has to W i c e ~Addresses. f )ds out of it, and as they were not the any measure of real d i ~ o v e v should , as !ntle, if greasy, wop bees, but a load of freely impart the same to such, o f whose loody-minded Anglo Saxons, I am now sincerity he is assured, and withal such, (ping t h i s article in some pain - may who with himself are daily searchers into C. Hill. m e World Turned Upside D o w . key all roast in hell! To get back t o the the secrets o f Nature, I am confid-ent, Pelican. mmonwealth of new harmony.. .) that by t h i s p i n t improvement of their lueamish, bat it should be remembered F. Yates. Gioradano Bruno and the MI utmost ability, more in some few years bat, just as then yeasts and other micro would be found out, than by any one metic Tradition. R. K. P. 1964. single man could be attained, thou'gh he -ganisms for fermenting alcohol and F. Yates. l h i t r e of ihe World. R.K.P. laking cheese and bread had t o be conlive to a very great age'. 7969. He then proceeds into an impassioned red out of thin air, so bees did not Samuel Hartlib and ihe Advancement 08 debate on precisely what sort o f maggots rive courtesy of British Rail, but had Learning. ed C. Webster. C.U.P. 1970. I be produced on the site. Dr Arnold crawl out o f carcasses, and talks, in a W.H.G. Armytage. Mwem Below mt's method of making bees: 'Take a voice thrilling with natural curiosity, as Ut0p1.M E x p r i m i s in England. 1 alf, or rather a Sturk (Steer) o f a year though he has several meadows filled 196fl R.K.P. l%l. Id, about the latter end of April, bury it with.corpses in various stages o f putrefac* m b -W -UWM~~ B &t or ten dayes, till it bejjn to putriw tion, Does one learn more about Nature R& corrupt, then a k e it forth o f the in a biology lab or 4t1 a summer madow?

Jndercurrents 17

a result of h a t might be politely called a wries of accidents the preceding article turned out a bit shorter than expected. In kitishM m y m just didn't yrive and s t i l l tawnit arriwd. io we're p b s d , (not t o mention relieved), t o Wbwtng hfaward from Undercurrents 1%in to fill the br&. ~ ~ I W featwe &I Ma n w k e d contrast, perhaps, t o S Q efthe s c l f e i a n c y guru JohhSeymour assures us that -

.....

articular the pictwesef the-bdtiw wMkh we wcm m&&nt& e@mUq.f.vqm#e

at the bottom of MY after truth are misled and the Organic wish there were, but there aren't. There us & m b l y . Some people are able to Movement, which could, and must, save @foxes, alas, and badgers, and mink, w W t u b f o r d w s e reassuringcreeds a the world is discredited among intelligent bcaped from captivity t o proliferate inmaterialism that i s so gross and all- , he streams, and p i w h my $ h i c k s ) , but pervading that it4.w na time to worry G - - - p ~ ~ l e . This Universe i s infinitely splendid, here are no f@lrtes. Iam quite stwe about about what happeas teus when we die. * infinitely fascinating, infinitely his - if there were Iwould know there As a mother sticks a dummy into a mysterious -us it is. We just don't need vere. Of course 1 can imgine fairies, and baby's mouth to stop it howling, w a high-powered plastic moror-boat, into t h e e to invent a lot of mystical rubbish to lave them buzzing about in my head, but " !'make it fascinking. Just look at it as it IQ matter how long I live, I am sure that hands of i t s sons and these things stop re all^ is - what 'magic' could be more will never see one - because th them worrying too. All these things are -. varve~lousthan the actual, completely ren 't any. dummies - like baby's dummies - and Unmagical, !ife o f plants? Take a Iknow that by saying this I they have the same reassuring and bucketful of ordinary soil and a hundred beply offend a lot o f people, and why quieteningeffect-Unfortunately, though, different plants will extract material from tffend people because they have beliefs some b a & i find out - &y d i s o w r that that simple powdery substance to create hat I consider t o be unsound beliifs? they can't ma/& get any milk out of the a thouswid subtle chemicals - a myriad &rely it i s better t o leave us all with w durn- - jt o ~ f 3yh m r n y a f m all shades of subtle colourq - chemical b i o n s . &t I think it is neceswy to say and so they spit it out and howl again. substhat can cure us, can kill us, t because the organic movement (to And tkat*~what happens to SQIW of u5 an infinity of different tastes and aromas, h i c h I like to fee! I belong) i s mstantfY grown-ups too. an infinity o f shapes, I k r e d i t e d bv adherents who believe. or There are people in Scotland who ay they believe, in 'plant devas', and claim they can make fine plants grow in alking to the plants, and telling the r a k - =t..#" sand talking to them,.kw I made fine MI other naughty things to go away (i rid so the restless search for a new. plants grow in sand i n Suffolk no.t by hey did go away they would only go a ic, a new Mysticism, a new Religion talking to them (although Ican't claim I tordamage t o someone else), and pianting is Ghat we are really after. And we iling didn'tswar at a few of them from time ccording to the phases of the Moon, and to any magical straw that drifts our way 40 time) but by giving them all the thinp pinkling magical substances about the - belief that the p o s i t i w ~the f stars at '. that they needed. m a t were those? the time of our birth t i h a t if we are ields. I know a man who stuffs certain Humus, plant nutrients, moisture, wbs in the stomach of a-wild stag, buries born a few weeks preka$urely? Eh? ) freedom from competition from other t for the winter, and then sprinkles the affects our characters, belief that a plqnts, good cultivation. Sound organic waxing Moon pulls plants upwurd~while ewltit~tputrescent rubbish about his methods of husbandry in fact. Sand i s i a waning one pulls them downwards (if ields - a teaspoonful to an acre! m m d b s soil fbr growing vlants in the Moon pulls upwa~dswhen it is our There is no ev~denceto show that any you bang plenty of-@ 6"ck into it. these methods and devices have the side of the Earth what when it goes tbe You can turn it into a rich, early, wellother side, as it does every twelve hours, IMghtest effect, nor is it likely that there drained but moisture-retaining, fertile eh? ). ver will be any. I n fact the effects may soil. Those people in Scotland have done A man has just written a book saying e deleterious: if you limit your planting just this; the fact that they talk, or don that the trees of the Old WoFld caused D certain phases of the Moon y o m a y talk, to the plants or the devas has Man;by mystical means, to build boats ell miss h a t redly matters - the right nothfng to do with the matter at all. Tc (of trees) and s i i l across the Atlantic, so im to plant. If you plant seed in the claim that it does merely obscures the bht kind of soil, which has been treated that the trees in the boats could talk to issue, fogs the truth, makes real truth orrectly, has enough warmth and the trees in America, and bring news of more difficult to get at. them back to the trees in the Old World. nough moisture and not too much, Maybe one day a new religion will w seed wiil germinate and the plants will Iwas on a radio programme once with a arise in which we 'enlightened' people of man who claided that he put lie row. You cmQlk to the k v a s until you the new world may believe in. Maybe il detectors on plants and the plants showed re blue in the face and it will not make won't. Maybe each. one of us has got10 a reaction Wefy time he (the man) had le slightest difference to your seed or to develop his or her own religion, or an ormsm. The lie detector should have nvthin~ else. If mice come and eat vour h n i u t on the mah, not on the plants, religious feelings, or set of be1iefs;and k dh t; will be that, If you get rid bf ' - for it was quite evident who was telling &us satisfy for themselves these natural E mi& they won't eat your seed. cravings o f our kindewhatis refigion bit* the lies. An hour's conversation with him W , e crave magic in this unmagical age a sense o f w e ? Is there not enough showedbim up to be a complete re live in. At1 the comforting old beliefs charlatan, md yet hundreds o f thousands around us i n the real and actual Univeo - ihe surety that when we die we don't - the Universe our five senses tell us of p e w k round a b u t the wortd betieve ally die, for esampie, the feeling that a ~eneficientBeing watches our every *vWW # h e says. Jhus pseudo-sctence about - to ~rovidei s with a sense of aw dtheWlies$~ @ks the ptace of individual move aMsarefor us and Can there k mything more awe-jnspiri vanished refigi03, md earnest s&ekers ' * looks after us - these beliefs have fatted thzn the thought of our h, millions o

gG.

New Reli@on?

f~om a prac$cal pdW of views is a pat pr&~t& inevw& prdual mwe fwt than de&iWehabeing s o ~ f m ~ some inadequate a1 &~eIW. W ~ ~ & sm p a rgk p +aptpation'. its&mtbsmfwm,bt~ramgeoftk -ef apph*m app&athsd&is it's Using a mttp ~f techniques you can, ma&&dtetaskbproW~* for instance, masam the &ptb of a b e g o d t b q o f ~ ~ & pipe, its &obqc d jufsths, Wte mam-. p h ~ ~ - ~ t o. o ~ . the t&c&mof ial of which it is d, Ta give an example, a common any leaks or breaks, the qudity and prin building and rebuilding i s to amount of water flowing through it, &d 10the old cables, drains and other so on - all before digging down. The sewkes. Metal-detectors are often used dowser's instrument - coat-hangers, for this, but they're a lot more difficult hazel fork, pendulum or whatever - is to use than one is led to believe, m d . used as a 'Yes/No device', a qualitative they're limited both in range and in what and quantitative Yes/& device somethw can find. A cheap magnetic metal&a$ an&a&s to a conventi~nal t f l q will have trouble ~ ~ oh w ri. lb 1 instrument is a f i d i m y ing other *an ferromagdewtor simpla n - d m i i ampli#ier, amaifying netic materials a few inches below the small hand-movments in mu& the wrface;an expensive mar-or rid%-type same way that a met# needle visually detector (more like Â£100can demt ahy amplifia a smaH eurrene and,.it~s4as a me$d and some other types of 'disconmeter can m w r e , m y different t i ~ i t ydown ' ~ to (at h t ) about five feet # below the surface. Neither wpe is capable of dissriminating easily between one substance and another. And beyond these limitations, if you have to use conventional tools, instruments get expensive thousands of poundsl or rhore.

and the like); and it's almost impossible to state, with any degree of certainty, which reflex is operating at any w e time. So the mind can place cmditions 'in front of' the reactionl selecting what the instrument will reat to like the selector knob on an AVGmeter. It can also intrude, through prejudice and preconceptions, doubt and self-questioning ' - the attitude of mind i s critical (in both senses) in dowsing, so ardent materialists please note! It's also possibie to use directnd inmgimtion - a dowser can mentally 'go to' a place, or a tim, at will, and collect informationfrom there - hence the rather bizarre techn k w s &ka&dowsing and %he like, w k e a mapis used to symboik the ceqktked p f e f w the imagi-b 'gota'. Symbdism of thk kind - 'symW-ic w i v d e n w * is used in many dewsing techniques. R e pos&canmon form of this is the use of 'smes', a sample of the same matwiai as â‚¬ o b j j t you!re looking for, as a qualitative condition 'in front of' the reaction. (Tradbtionalty, this is closely rehted to 'sympathetic magic'). Ther may also be sane kind of physical otsemi-physical 'resonance' involvedjn the use of these 'samples', but I'm none tw happy about that - I prefer to 'explain' it in terms of a 'mental world', in which, by definition, the physically 'real', the symbolic, the archetypal and the imaginary are all equalty 'real'. Dowsing thus becomes both a mixture of analysis and intuition them; dowsing is and a bridge bet-n a way & usitlg i m t u h analytically in pFactice.

G-

(%?

Anyone can do it -8ut with a littie practice - no.more than isneeded to learn how to use a metald e m m accurately - you can use a pair of 6entsoat hangers or welding rods (castingten penm) to locate the sew-ms of a& practical depth, with precise discr.hination between the servi~es,and regardless of what materials they're made of, Which sounds ridiculds; I know, but the paint is that it works - and also that, despite tbe badit?onaiassump~ansabout dowsing, almost anyone $an learn to do it inpractice, getting reliable results ffpm dowsing is about as difficult as learning to ride a pushbike - and in fact many ofthe learning problems are the same in both skills. The approaches that atfw-us to move away from %old assumption that 'only & e d people CM do it' are muIti-Wf a mixwre of physical, mental w d other factors - rather than the old physicalistic IXpseudo-physical approaches. While 'these new approaches make ouf ideas h t how &wing works eve-n more vague than they &re before, they also

qualities by placingwitable electrical t or electronic w n d i t i w 'in front af i so too the dowser can selwt what his instrument will react to or measure by placing suitable canditions 'in eont of' the imtntmnt's reaction. Dowsing is partly physical, partly mental, paqy someitii~gekse - ~t'sa , multi-level tad. The instrument moves because youp h& move; your hands mwe bemuse a nerve drives a muscle; and the nervousimpulse is triggered by the response of some reflex to some stimulus. That much can be proved but the refWm iwdved can be either tJw simple type like the knee and blink r6ftexes.m e k c ~ ~

D~wsingis a tool ,

&%beware - dowsing is not some

. kin& of mystical or magical panacea, it

just a tool. The further away from the 'objjctive' physical reality, the more subjective the Mniques necessarily br come,- and thus the greater subjjtive control needed to obtain reiiable result>. It's all too easy to get 'results' from the wrong imaginary world! ' The main advantages of dowsing (especially the modern 'multi-level' .systems) are cheapness, flexibility and simplicity of the techniques and tools.almmt all types of dowsing taols can be 'knocked up' in a matter of minutes from things lying around in the home w workshop* tts main disadvanage $se .

rods parallel as in tiacking, and with th idea of 'blqckage' or 'break' %be rods should cross over a blwked or broken point cross over at a

Use this as a guideline, but note that it may r W and work differently for you.

.Using that set of Yes& reactions, you GM 'ask' the pendulum (and thus your+. self) questions that can be answered unambiguously by Yes or No. In this way intuition can be used controllably-to handle analysis. dhich makes this an

A pendulum can also be used quantitat~ e l yeither , by ask& it Yes/No quantitative auestions, or else by counting - the numb& of gyrations it *ake r e t u M g to oscillation. Preselect the units (feet, galloq seconds or whatever) and the order of units (five feet per gyration, ten feet, a hundred feet) of your scale, and hold this scale in your mind while w o r k i ~Then . use the pendulum to 'ge$eritey&e fequired numbr for that

d e Y

k"l

$&%

~. +2#'+>!5,"?

You can alw work on maps and diagr

s somewhat erratic reliability - but ote that the reliability, as I've already npr@,depends far more on the perator than the instrument. It is a tilt, and like all other skills it requires . little practice and awareness, and a forkingknowledge of its basic rinciples and mechanics, i n order to e t useful results. My own interest in dowsing is in its se in 'fringe archaeology' - ley 'stems, earth-acupuncture and the like but that's rather outside the scope of . (is article. T o show more mundane, and early practical use o f it, the following tree (ages give directions and suggestions ti using dowsing to find a water pipe or _rain. +

Reliability and control Oneof theracist tmportarrt things t o

dike aboutdowsing is that it is highly ubjective: so the reliability of any dowing work will depend more on the iperator than anyone or anything else. "he instrument only tells the dowser what is hands are doing - alt the actual work L done subconsciously, somewhere inside tim or her. The whole process is a mixare o f analysis and intuition; in using it w're playing with coincidences; trying o get the reaction of the instrument to oincide with the place o f whatever it is w're looking for, or tryinslo get the maginary world of your 'sample' t o cowide with the real one. Subjective eonlitions have to be taken into aecwnt as wch as 'objective' ones before reliable n d repeatable results can be obtained. So there are quite a range of things o watch out for if you don't seem to be laving m y success. There are few physial problems, but most o f these are fairly ~bvious:by far the most common nistake i s holding the rod in such a way hat it can't move freely, or even move tall. Check that one first! Then for some people there's a iroblem of weather for some reason ertain weather conditions don't 'agree' v i t h them. If youcan, always repeat any rowsing work at different times of day, nd avoid difficult work i n weather conlitions i n which you feel uncomfortable. "his is because you may find it difficult hen to-retax, which, .as 11'1 explain hortfy, is important that you are able 0%. Incidentally, it shouldstill be iossi-blefor you t o find an underground eater-pipe or stream even when it's louring with rain: you should, with ractice, be able to discriminate p~ecisey between objects, and to find only that which you're looking for. By far the most difficult problem for nost people to understand is that the nind has a critical effect (in both senses if the word) on the reliability o f the esults. The catch is that anegative pproach - 'it can't work, of course', or I suppose it'll never work for roe' - or dually an overly positive approach 2 'it wsrwork for me', or 'trying' or 'conentrating' will usually interfere with or teatly jam up the whole process. Dowsing eems to operate through a recsptivt tate o f mind, while conventional 'scienific' thinking operates through an active tate: so don't try to analyse what i s

happening (or not happening), don't be pessimistic, and don't try too hard. Just brtfwortc~tsetf.'Tt'Wttey wor~%h@e is 'resti: rest your mind an-what you're doing, Just be a little patient; if you adopt a quiet confidence and just allow the instrument to work itsetf 'through you1, the whole thing becomes much easier, and more reliable. The more you interfere in the process, the less reliable it becomes.

Developing die skin Dowsing js a skill, and as with any skill you have to practice until the movements and actions o f the manual part of the skdl (in thiscase, holding and using the rod or whatever) become automatk, become a seqmnce of reflex ac*ns and reactions. Once it knows what to do,the body can get on ^fth the job quickly and efficiently - hut only as long as the mind doesn't confuse it with contradictory orders. It's rather like riding a pushbike: in order to ride it you must balance anumb forces without really do it - and as soon afryou s think or worry abou

The same applies i n dowsing. And the same kind of direction of action as on a pushbike is used to select how the OWsing instrument will react: on a puihbike you H m k about where you want to go rattier than deliberately steering the thing, and in dowsing YW redirect your conscious attention on for intended effect) of movement, so as t o let duce, unconsciously, the right 'cause', tHe right reflex or sequence o f reflexes. The simplest way of doing this, if you won't feel too embarrassed, is t o 'talk to'the instrument, as if it were a slightly cantankerous child Y for that's effectively the relationshipbetween the two aspects o f yourself. Note also that any conscious, semiconscious or unconsciousprejudices and assum~tionscan.and often wilt. interfere 4th the results in the same way as above. The first level ef this is jumping to conelusions - this will tend t o give you the result {or nonresult) that you expect t o get - and control of this is just a matter of selfobservation. It needs practice, but it's ^&t particularly difficult. -: What i s difficult is the control of

mwonseiwsflsrejudices- they 're difficult to control simply because they amunconscious. These adeep-seated even in those w h o p e honestly trying to be open-minded (let alone those who think they can be 'objective' about the whole , business) that reliable results especially in the more controversial areas such as map- and time-dowsingcan be hard t o come by. In theory the only way o f handling this problem is t o isolate the self entirety from the process, with the sole exception of' that part o f the self that is applying whatever conscious directions and controls are needed. Only when you are 'at one with the object' can fourtruly be 'objective*. This is a theoretical idea, of course, but in practice and with experience you should be able to come pretty close to it The most practical way of7 doing this is some form of meditation'-" (in the open sente of the.word), ionw * m of reflection on yourself and work being done. Try resting you* -' nd on three points: on the balance the instrument; on where you are;

and on the problem-at-hand, th6 particular part of the technique that you're using at that time, Set up that. 'tripod' 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 o f course, so try out various ways in practice, and usewhatever 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' abou dowsing - it will only make it impossible for you to do it. So don't stay sitting on your backside, ponttfi eating on whether it can work, or ha* it can work - get up and do it f o ~

- <

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Tom (Saves Dowsing: Techniques and tions, by Tom Graves; published

Undercurrents

of demo and debate. I would argue that the only why to get our point across without being outmanoeuvred by BNFL etc. is to use direct action: demonstretions. pickets, occupations somehow the public must be aroused and informed. Tom Baxrmce Cardiff FOE m e m e Hall

CORNISH POWER We are trying to contact anyone who has the necessary knowledge and expertise to draw up a comprehensive report on the 'Practicality of supplying the power needs of a Cornish Industrial/Residential Conurbation of 40000 Pop. from linked Sun/Windi'Water~ower systems on 200 square miles of nelghbouring moorland and valley areas.' Our local knowled?** of 'power points' would be supplied. Food and accommodation could be arranged. but no fee. as is a e which this -- - ~-r - i-v t initiative we do not wish t o fall into the hands of more wealtny establisned bodies who might keep the data for their own more selfish or exclusive uses. David Stringer

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27 MHz. this is an extremely inconsiderate view that totally neglects the considerable investment already existing. Surely a new medium should join the queue for available frequencies. This as well as being fair would provide British industry with the chance to develop a new outlet free from Japanese competition. (incidentally. from a purely technical point of view there are frequencies far better suited to CB than 27 MHz.) Finally, if Elen would care to listen t o the unlicensed Pirates already operating d la CB, he would think twice before wanting to join in this trivial repartee. Whilst (unlike many licensed amateurs) I'm in no way opposed to the principle of radio for all, I am concerned to avoid wasting valuable wavelengths for activities that in my experience are scarcely worthwhile communication. A better understanding of radio must surely he in the interests of dveryone. John Wttiion (G8KIS) 25 Quarrendon Rd Amersham

CB May I as a regular Undercurrents reader and licensed radio amateur correct a few points in Richard Elen's otherwise VeN informative article on the Citizen Band in ~--~ UC16? Firstly the assertion that CB would provide the best of both amateur and industrial communicdtion is plainly inaccurate. Amateur radio exists (among other things) for self-training in the use of radio, for genuine research and for fostering international goodwill. CB demands little in the way of operattng skills. prorides no opportunities for extending the frontiers of knowledge 0.e. propagation research, earth/moon/ earth and satellite communications etd. nor is it designed for lone ~~-~ distance communication. CB is not ---~--therefore a substitute for amateur radio, and would provide for an entirely different need. Regarding CB as a substitute for the best in industrial communication, all I can say is that I would not be particularly happy at the thought of my life being in the hands af a doctor trying t o contact emergency services via a medium like CB. Nor would I particularly want a psychiatrist t o discuss my case in the public forum! People who really need reliable and more-or-less private communications channels would be better advised to use those that already exist. So may I make the suggestion that any group trying t o push CB operation in the UK concentrate on what it's really about, ie the more personal forms of communication. If Richard Elen must draw comp h n s between CB and amateur radio, then may I contradict his assertion that the Radio Amateurs' Examination is difficult. This is neither the intention of the Home Office nor the experience of any serious enthusiast. It is intended (like the driving test) to deter only those who would by their incompetence be a danger or annoyance t o others. (And I sometimes suspect it doesn't always even achieve that!) Any person of normal intelligence can learn all that is necessary in a few weeks by studvine an excellent ..-~ -.-----... ..-- little book published by the Radio Society of Great Britain. And in any case Alternative Technology enthusiasts should be ahead of current knowledge not. behind it! The claim that amateurs haveto maintain their own equipment 1s simply not true. The nearest approach to CB on the amateur bands is the use of FM tranceivers on 2m -and these are readily obtained and serviced. The ability to service equipment is far llabove the minimum a &i necessary to pass the RAE. As to Elen's proposal that CB should displace model control 0 ~

TROTS

~~~

Thank you for your article 'Citizens' Band Why is it Banned?' in Undercurrents 16. I learnt a great deal from it and am very dad the matter- is -- heine raised. Whilst not agreeing with all Your points (e.g. I do not agree that import controls should be maintained to ~ i v the e UK electronics industry :chance - protection has a nasty habit of going o n for ever) I do wish t o give my wholehearted support to your basic proposition. namely that there shnuld - - - -he Ã recoenised Citizens' Band in this country. I have held this view for many years and have floated it in various quarters. The main objections seem t o be that the American experience has been disastrous and secondly that there is insufficient space available. Never havine . . ... .. .-. - been -- in -- America. 1 don't know what the ~ m e r i c a n experience has been. You write "1t is only fair to point out that the CB situation in the States has become somewhat chaotic in some places. I guess that what you mean is that in some places there are too many stations on the same channel and that they are jamming each other. If you mean nothing worse than this. the difficulty can be overcome by restricting transmitting Power, which is easy enough to do simply by only permitting the sale of units whose power is not easily increased. MY own experiments suggest that 100 MW transceivers are limited in range to about % mile at the most, whatever the manufacturers may claim. Therefore the problem of jamming ought not to be severe. In the country there will be fewer units anyway. whereas in urban areas there may be more units but the presence of buildings, especially modern steel-framed buildings. will reduce the range considerably. These considerations also apply to the second objection, namely

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insufficient space. Model-control units have such a very restricted range that interference is unlikely, and anyway the channels to which you refer are not used for anything else. The old chestnut about possible interference to emergency m e..sis alÃ§ . . .r . . in - the same - ~ ~ - ~ category - this band is simply not used for such our~oses.I have a SW receiver which can cover the 27 mhz band. and I have listened in vain for a signal of any description; in other words it is an 'empty band'. It occurs to me that many neonle must ~ossdsseouomcnt which wouldooerate o n this band. When I wrote to the Home Office to enquire about its use I received a very stern letter saying that licensing was impossible because of emergency services, and that there had been "many prosecutions" of pirate operators. I find this hard to believe because low power and intermittent mobile use would make detection a bard task. Have you any indication that the band is, in fact, used in the UK (albeit Illegally)? I would like to he associated with a campaign for a citizens' band and would he olad to know how i can help. The greatest difficulty is that so few people are interested. The amateur radio world should be an ally but isn't. Perhaps the 'Alternative Society' must take the initiative with You leading the field. Stnngely enough. we might get some limited sunoort manu- - from ~facturers andlor importers who wait% sell their wares. John T. Haloes 46 Westhaven Crescent Aughton Ormskirk Lancs. L39 5BW ~~~

First let me lay that I like the wide range of articles and ~Zacticl suggestions on AT that Undercurrents normally contains. What I don't like so much is the elitist tone that creeps into tome of those articles. I refer Mrti<nilÃˆrl to Tony Emerson's piece o n T h e Politics of Production for Need'. Mr. Emerson writes, in an othel wise good article, "Of c o u n t the institutionalised bureaucrats of our movement are not showing interest. Neither are the doemati1 sectarians the 'revo1utioluu-y vanguard' parties, as usual, are no in the van. But aside faom those whose minds have been irreversibly closed by training, h> adherence to 'the line', there are enormous numbers who see the potential of Lucas-type developments. . .". Now it seems to me that a more sectarian statement would be hard to find. To eenerahse as Emerson does about revolutionaries 'adhering to the line' and ignoring AT shows a lac of understandine about the in which 'far left' -situations groups find themselves and a lad of knowledge about such groups and their members. Presumably he decries hoth bureaucrats and revolutionary socialists in order to out forward SERA as the 'real

A WINDSCALE COMMENT We thought that as well as contacting Poland Street directly, we'd let you know what we thought of the FOE nuclear demo/rally at Windscale. There was little consultation with local groups over the decision to run a 'nuclear excursion' train; our group used a m i n i b w as we couldn't afford Â£+travel to the nearest station route. There was enthusiasm, hoth among us and other FOE groups, for the proposed occupation of Tomess power station site in Scotland, o n which work will begin this summer: however, central FOE decided that there was too little press value in lying in front of bulldozers. Even direct action at the Windscale site was judged to be 'counterproductive', so all that the press saw were 600 or so bored and cold demonstrators listening to a succession of uninspired speakers. Lack of local representation was another serious point: apart from the already committed Half-Lifers and -- the .- union man. we had little response from the local people. Thiswas a vital mint where FOE should have made some real effort. The rally appeared to fall seriously between the two stools

As a member of the International Socuditts (which In fact aims to be a nuus party rather than a vanguard, although I pect Mr. Emerson would clatsitY it in the latter category in any case) I object t o the implication that we ignore AT concepts. I at least am interested and so are other IS members that I have dis cussed the matter with. Don't condemn us simply because we have not taken an active interest as a group, nor suggest we are merely reformist because we call for the Right t o Work rather than specifically for the Right t o Work on Socially Useful Products. Compared t o the hulk of the Labour Movement we are still very thin on the ground, although our. influence is growing and is now significant in many areas becaw we are active socialists (ie. 'militants' and 'extremists' as th press would have it). How o n earth can you expect us to throi our weight as an organisatio" behind SERA when we are struggling against such prink problems as fighting redun$ancles, fighting the cuts. c a m p a u w u for democratic union structures, for health and safety at work and home, and t o expose to worker: the general hypocrisy and waste of our present system of production? You won't make a revolution without revolutionaries and you won't make revolutionaries without education and an idea of 'what could be'. The Lucas initiative and the Australian Green Bans are excellent and logical developments of the basic right to work. but for any AT enthusiasts, perhaps uninitiated in the grubbier workings of captialiam and the lengths to which the ruling classes will 20 to maintain their hegemony, t o expect our rulers to blithely roll on their backn when a few =OURS of workers demand t o work on socially useful products is naive, to say the least. I honestly feel lometlines that

many envixonmÃ§ntaliÃ§ and AT'don't IUHM what k likely to happenontheloadto Â¥octallim.Certtlnl~tectaria comment* like E n m o n ' i will help no-on* in the l o w run and will only serve to estrange potentially good allies, B.J. MOM 28 George Road Guildford Surrey

FAILURES WANTED I haw Ibm been wondxing about the muwbmand my dationehlp withame.Do I r c l l y h a v e t o w a comuiner? We& here's what I think. a ) The lettert an often the moat intemtiog parti, h) long boring diatrlben an a waste of GOd'i trees, c) get up and do it. Then talk about it. (Hence my (tilled toiKue.) d) Following from c) when do people ifport their failures? Not in UC it would seem. Shame really. 'cos and c o m m w t h f~~ details of them really la important and, in my view, sometlmea more important than details of succeoes. I'm prepued to start a 'directory of (allures', so please lend me a precis of your failures (about 2-3 paragrapha and as many drawings as you like). I've got a few hundred of my own to kick off with! Jon P. Baker 31 North Street Southminster Essex

CROFTER'S COMPLAINT Your article on the NATTA conference in UC 16 appears to revÃ‘ rather disturbing attitude. In particuh,.! rtfer to the ction entitled Community 'echnolo#~;your references to mow in 'rural retreats' who only Jhy' with AT. (while. of c o u r t . you get down tithe rial thing); . your iminuations that what is DPropriate to such a 'rural streat*is not necessarily PDliable to 'normal' people in 'norma' situations. Further substantiation of this attitude appears in your reply to Ronald Turnbull's letter in the same issue. A glance across the "axe at the caption o n the photocaph of farm labourers is also !vealing. Certainly of "much mterest to social historians". 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 other people in different situations can only lead to division. The condemnation of others is, in fact. part of the conditioning to which society subjects everyone. Perhaps you do not envisage any necessity for rural settings. Perhaps, buried in your subconscious, is a wish to join with the city Planners in covering the country with concrete and asphalt. leaving, of course, a few patches here and there for allota few menta. Perham. -~~ --~.. .--., .... dmnle ---. lessons in economics and biology would be valuable? MYapologies for sounding so uptight, but when you are 'attacked' the response is natural We all have a part to play. We should all take note of those words which you always deem fi to print in inverted commas: "awareness" and "consciousness chnngiug*'. RobC kburn South Windhill Croft Maud Aherdeenahire AB4 SPR ~

HEDGES A pity Tony Durham thinks hedges though desirable are "useless" - & his review of Kenneth MeUanby's Can Britain Feed Itself? (Undfircuuenta NoJ3) - or was he tome-in-the-cheek? Apart from aesthetic* and wild life con~rvation.hedges are useful on two counts; first, for their traditional stock-enclosing function which. on the mixed farms of the future (hens, cows, sheep. as well as UODS). will be increasingly necessary; and second for their intrinsic value. Eighteenth century manuals prem i e planting particular species for their fruits, hardwood root* or other properties (the 'spindle* tree being an example). showing how farmem then retarded - - - - hedsex . is a linear croc t o he intermittently culled. in the same way as mixed woodland was selectively thinned but not totally felled as in the one-crop forests of today. For real self-sufficiency, timber Production for domestic use is obviously crucial,

JO*

Etajiway Allotment* Group .

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Ronald Turnbull's letter on hay is Perpetuating a wasteful fallacy. What's all this about cooking hay? Why does extracting the heat from hay 'spoil* it? Heat in hay is produced by the respiration of bacteria which use the natural sugars In the hay as food. It's a vicious circle: the heat enables the bacteria to reproduce, use more sugar, create more heat. and so on. The end product is the cooked hay he was talking about -the c o w like it, but it has virtually no feeding value, because all the goodness of those valuable ~udan;has been wasted. Conclusion? Avoid heating wherever possible - o r extract any heat produced by any means at hand. Judging hy the amount of cooked hav around. the

Incidentally: co;ked hay is very palatable because it's partially fermented (this seems to appeal to cows) -and this is probably the basis to the myth. Oliver Balnw Bicton College of Agriculture East Budlejgh Devon EX9 7BY I hope that 'Hot Hay*Brown (UC 16) will find these suggestions useful. Forcinff vegetable and seed growth with a-manurial hot-bed is a well established technique for extracting useful heat from the berserk bacterial growth that constitutes decay. I am in the (parttime) procexa of investigating other uses for this free heat source. answer. hooefuUv. is - - -- - . The - --... -. . -,beat Pipe. I was hoping to use the compost heap next to the m e n houie is an AT answer to mounting winter paraffin bills, but there's one problem -cost; an 8" by %" diameter commercial demonstration heat pipe costs

. - -.

The answer - heat pipes are simple in theory -build one! Standard copper water pipe seems the ideal case, lined with a wick of (preferably) fine sheet or copper gauze. Felt doesn't work. The biaproblem is the working fluid. Commercial formulations are trade secrets and probably too complex and nasty for the handier household help anyway. When I build one that works 111 let you know. Meanwhile all sufigestiona.are welcomed. One problem I foresee -does r e m o d of heat from haystacks with heat-pipe type efficiency alter the biological process in any way? The high tem.pnratures produced may not be Ideal for the bacteria concerned, so hopefully

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HAY AGAIN

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~ ~ ~ i r ~ n > ~ < n i i - > ~ t h maandiXlonalplanninfbodn ~ . n ~ d ~ f ~ U o hh the XOal w w a over decoinlwlritlonby tlrnlonÃ§inthe the above-mentioned. but conHie spin of the individual bud. Btder the problem if a Hxal 39 council didn't want a road Su through, instead of, as la umaL WMt Midland. co-operation! Aftm all if t h i n lu been more Clay Cross type councils, the rente of many p l a c ~ MYSTICISM IS BETTER would have been lower, u no THAN SOCIALISM government will face solid teamroot*' . ..ommritio~. . - --- Now, the practical problem of I have noticed a tendency t o elected. MY, I would assume thatradical technology think it advisable t o put up peopl should be a new type of socialism. who an '-ible~ in the eye* of I believe that all socialism must Your local populace; after all, by human nature lead t o totalI might vote for a tnak hut not itarianism, as has happened in many others would (or not Russia and China already, and may a -le* one that la). soon happen in this country. As Then we haw the problem of 8 9 4 the main s h in ' what you are standing aim of totalitarianbm is the 'independent' usually meuu very continuity and stability of the society. As I see it in the not too distant future, we h e more example the name would be likely t o have a solar-powered a little off-puttint for many, not totalitarianism than a nucleal powered one (what better way t o maintain stability than to use nonbecause people haw never exhaustable energy sources?) of Winstanley, and the name la Once governments have realised a bit 'tunny'. So I propose that nuclear power is both una '&uIght1 name, boring though economic and unethical, they will (t is. nowabout -the cornmunit turn to large-scale solar and wave moup, on Community Welfare energy projects t o keep the (I never was much on names) system going and there will be but I'm sure out there amongst little improvement in o w way of the readers of UC there is somelife. one who could think of a good If the primary aim of radical name, and perhaps a few who technology is to achieve continuity would a n e e with me! If there is and stability, this can either be anyone in this valley who does done through totalitarianism, or I wish they would get in touch. through what I would call Tim Evam "spiritual continuity'. Many Park View examples of spiritual c o n t i n u i t y 6 akenhead Wood can be found in the past. Surely Rossendale the builders of the Ley system Lanes had some means of maintaining spiritual continuity, by controlFIJIA.T. ling the 'earth spirit*so that they Greetings from (presumably) lived in harmony with their enyour most distant reader. Here vironment and with each other. Fiji, as* most underdeveloped Therefore my message is that C O U ~ ~ ~ the I ~ S 1973 , 'energy crisis' we should see radical f c h n o l o ~ hit hard. After long deliberation as a means of maintain* g not the Government decided to political b u t s iritual continuity. establish an Energy Unit within Thus it shouldbe a mystical or the Ministry responsible for social religious movement rather than and economic planning. Although a political one - a means of there is little interest in the returning to the Garden of Eden country in AT the Energy Unit by living in harmony with our 8 been specifically charged with environment, and thus of couraging the local development achieving the ultimate my small-scale renewable energy experience. This could be chnologies and disseminating through the ancient art of information on alternative energy geomancy, about which little is sources (as well as government yet known. Clearly, this is not a policy) to the public. As it is very practical approach to o w an organ of an unradical governimmediate problems, but it is ment it concentrates on hardware better than a solar-powered big brother. and the roducts of local but mostly foreign-owned) industry. Still, there is a genuine effort to encourage non-polluting solar/ Carter House, wind/biogas/mini-hydro energy on a small scale to our scattered Windsor, BAFLC islands. Peter Johnston c/o Energy Unit TOWN HALL TAKEOVER? Central Planning Office Government Buildings It occurs to me that perhaps one Suva way in which we can move Fiji towards a reorganised non-state society is through local council elections. I can almost hear the MILITARY gasps, but if You're not rich and , UNDERGROUND don't have a job which makes it possible for you to work away I've found the military underground network. It was started in from towns, then this is surely 1969 and entailed great expendone way of making the local iture from the Defence Budget. councils, who are potentially The starting point is under large land-owners (some are now!) Knightsbridge Barracks in Hyde use this land for smallholdings etc. Park. Unfortunately this is also its After all InAmsterdam the finishing point. Its sole purpose is Provos and those that followed to take away horse shit from the them had a significant effect o n three hundred horses in the the city fathers, by being o n the stables two storeys above. The council. shit is then carted away to It is more relevant to have a mushroom farm "somewhere in people who want change on Essex". --. a local council, than in Parliament When the Officer of the Day was for several reasons. Firstly their control over land, control of roadquestioned under pressure he finally broke down slobbering huildIng, and the locally 0 "NOWYOU Undercurrents nennle social services. With local government reorganisation of c o u r t some councils are resmmible fnr -- - - -a rather large anonymous area. e Knave I'm sure there are people who Slough will w that it* centml sovdrnBucks

THE LEY THAT ALWAYS WAS Below are two letters, an editorial reply and a quite separate editorial comment on the article inUC 16, The Ley that Never Was. Originally Chris Hutton-Squiresought to show that thegrand old man of leys, Alfred Watkins, had been less than accurate in his field work. We're printing these letters and comments to show just what difficulties ley-huntingand 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 letters will fill you with delight - they confirm whal you've known all along. If you're inquisitive and open-minded, however, they're a caution. Now read o n . . . Dear Undercurrents, , I've just read Chris Hutton Squire's hatchet job on Alfred Watkins and ley lines in your latest Under-urrents No 16 in the article sntitled 'The Ley that never was'. It seems a very one-sided slanderous incomplete article only W t l y rescued by the Stop Press

iten. -

The Ley referred to in the ilticle is mentioned by Watkins in The Old Straight Track' on page 123 and the relevant oarmaoh is

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'A church lay convenient to ferify is to be found in the map which is part of Mr O.G.S. Crawford's 'Andover District, an kccount of Sheet 283 of the o n e inch Ordinance Map', a monow p h which contains special information invaluable to ley lunters. Here five churches fidcombe, Linkenholt, Facomhe, Burghclere, and Sydmonton align precisely, and on the ley are lomesteads with the ancient lames of Folly Bun, Bacon's [formerly Beacon's) Farm, and W o n Street Farm. with fratmats of present-day road inipproximate alignment There are ilso on the map eight alignments, iach with four churches'. here we have Watkins referBig o Crawford's work without mdicating that he checked out the ey himself on the ground wrhaps taking Crawford's work in good faith. Unscientific maybe, but not the tint time a person luotes other people's work withaut checking out the details themidves, particularly if the work is Eavburable to their theories. t Chris Hutton Squire's article Wed to mention that the Ley aligned also on 3 homesteads mentioned above andfragments rf present day road. These may renfy the ley - we have no way rf knowing from Chris Hutton Squire's article. Elsewhere in his book Watkiis nakes it clear that with church's an leys that it's not the site of the hurch that's important, it's the rite of the earlier pre-christian rite. Often the church is built we: the site, but in other cases he site might be in the churchfaid or nearby. So when Watkins ays 'here fivechurches . . . built HI or near align precisely.' If this s so there is the possibility of leveral tens of yards of move nent in the proposed ley line ndicated on the map. The only real way of checking )utaleyistogetoutonitwitha nap, compass and so on and :heck it out. It helos also to have I feel for the ley energy. I'm uspicious of an over-statistical nechanistic approach to leys. I ee no reasons why leys should be otally straight - the Lacks often 10 round mounds for example. '?om a lev enerw point o f v i w t's possible to alter the direction if flow of the ley energy (see ohn Micheli's 'View Over Atlanis') So the toy energy may not tw& go on a straight line either.

With regard to ley energy, I think it's possible that some 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 approichesto ley lines, how about getting into feeling the ley energy - which is the real point to ley line8 for me. 'Ley energy for the peopk!' In Undercurrents No 1 1 you have an intereview with Paul Screeton, author of 'Quicksilver Heritaee' and editor of the Ley Huntel who said: If you want to get a feeling of what ley power is like, go into the crypt at Lastingham Church, and it'll change your life'. It did! So how about checking out ley energy. A couple of ley sites that 1 found to give a feel of ley energy though not on the scale of Lastingham are Hartlebury Church and Wychbury Hill earthworks both in Wercestershire. How about an Undercurrents/ Ley Hunter trip to check out 'the Lev that never was?' Yours energetically, Bii West I 1 1Tavistock Crescent. London W1 1. Dear Sirs, Surely the ley-bustine article by C h r i 6 ~ u t t o n - ~ ~ ubas i r etonguein-cheek, merely to provoke. I should have thought UC was the last place to find such irrelevant upper-class scientifically elitist trash. We can get 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 hornrimmed glasses like you see in the aspirin ads on the telly. C h-S must be very scientifically 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 signif1cance.i~attached to the fact that a church was 1 mm out (later amended to 0.5 mm, percentage error 200% or is it 50%. I can never remember?) any more offers?! Now, how was this measured and what tolerance of accuracy was used as a standard? We unscientifically qualified people have to know this. Was a Woolies ruler used with 0.15 mm gradation lines? Were dividers used? Were they sham? Perhaos a vernier caC er was used. was it kept at . a standard room? How 21 C in manv 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 manv creases do thev have? What about Doppler shift? Relativity? When I worked on a drawine board I was shown how to put razor chisel edge on a 3H that would last all day. So I agree with

you about A ~atk&sknowing how to sharpen a pencil. ~ i k most e of us (unscientifically trained - gullible and stupid) people, I have only a. nodding acquaintance with friend Poisson and his distribution, but 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. bv the way. It's incredible how m&y of these bogus lines all cross at the same point! When one gets into the etymology of an this then the hairs on the back really stand on end! Anyway I can feel an attack of the E i o n Daniken coining 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 ar waiting for something. Yours cyra~~~h~~FW ( ~ ~ ischool l ~ d Certificate) 17 The Leys Woburn Sands. N Milton Keynes, Bucks.

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-Squire

Comment 2

It seems to me that there are good points to be raised on bolt sides of the argument On the or hand, it is certain that the point analysed by Chris do not con-, stitute a linear alignment of h@ accuracy, one of his basic defining qualities of a ley line. On the other hand, it is similarly obvious that Chris excluded at least three items of given data, ie the homesteads. The churches are indeed where the 9s states they s ~ o u l dbe, giving two threepoint alignmen instead of one five-pointer. Faccombe Church is indeed in the 'wrong place', so to speak. However;even assuming a strict ly linear theory of alignments, which is by no means widely accepted (many researchers I am not surprised that some would amee with Bill West on this), allthat is proved is that leyhunters & upset to learn Watkins was a measurable O.5m that their guru has feet of out, f0.5mm on one point in day. what? 500? There must be Leyhunting is a branch of hundreds of points determined Natural History notof Natural 1The Old Straight Track alone. Theology; this means that, in and if even one point in eight is Julian Huxley's phrase, we must half a millirnetre out I reckon 'sit down like little children that's pretty good going. before the facts*,even when Especially remembering the what they have to say is unwelstandard of maps at the time. come. The facts of this case are Chris ham no right to excludf that the churches are where the .. the three homesteads quoted by Ordnance Survey say they are Watkins, by saying that they are and they do-not align. Trying c, .- .: only corroborative evidence'. to 'save the phenomenon' by a They are quoted as part of the succession of ad hoc hypotheses line One final word about Ley like mediaeval schoolmen prop- ., ping UP the Ptolemaic c o s m o l o g, ~ y..Ă&#x201A;. ~ ÂĽEnergy. ^ ~ ~ ~ Chris refers to a visit .' won't work. *---s+ bv three members of the Undercurrentsgroup, including Despite much loose talk among himself, to the churches desleyhunters about mistakes on cribed in The Lev that 'Never maps there is no evidence of Was'. The other two visitors serious errors that I've seen. The were Martyn Patridge and problem is discussed very fully myself - when Chris says 'A in the standard work on the friend of mine who is (sensitive Ordnance Survey (Ordnance to ley energy) reported Survey Maps: A Descriptive nothing', the 'friend' referred Manual by J.B. Harley, chapter to is me (still, I hope!), and to 11). Every leyhunter should say I 'reported nothing' is bad read this book. misrepresentation. I stated in Specific points: the 1mm error was judged by eye in the our entry to Old Burehclere churchyard that I was aware of fist instance; subsequently it a slight tingling sensation, as was verified by plotting grid references. using an ordinary Martyn will testify, even though in view of Chris's article plastic ruler, with the vertical I was expecting nothing. scale exaggerated as on the sketch map in the article. But, I too, would There is no reason at all ," like them to be think that this 'alignment' was double-checked, preferably by a due to Crawford; this is just good dowser acquainted with a red herrim. The three homethis type of research. On the steads are only corroborative other hand, if so-called serious researchers like Chris are going evidence: in this case there is to 'foreet* inconvenient evidena nothing to corroborate so thev are irrelevant. If Watkins had by denying its existence (leaving meant to refer lo 'pre-christian aside the - checkable - validity sites' he would have done so. of the evidence itself). 1 would We have visited three of the suggest that this calls into question the validity of their churches to check out $is line. I am notsensitive to leyfinerny entire work. Richard Elen ~

fe^% .&.

PHOTOGRAPHY Electro-bioluminescenceexists. Only interpretation and explanation for what appears is in dispute. Richard Elen gives details of the construction ~f a simple device. . rHERE HAS been a great deal o f research work performed i n the US and the Soviet Jnion into Kirlian Photography, a method leveloped by S.D. Kirlian and associates n the USSR for the investigation of ihenomena that bear a strong relation;hip to the reports o f 'auras' reported by xychics. The aim of this article i s t o iescribe a method o f producing a reasonibly simple device that can be used t o :xamine these phenomena. The design tself i s taken from Psychoenergetic Handbook Nr. 1, ed. Earl Lane, publishi d by And/or, San Francisco. The iriginal device was designed by Larry Amos and J i m Hickman, and works very ?ffectively. In addition to the generator itself, the ixperimenter will need t o make a frame to hold a suitable film in position over :he electrode. Any type of film can be ~sed:best results will probably be obtaini d by using a large film size such as 120 oll-film, as the method is to produce a iischaree directly on to the film. For this eason, 35mm may provide too small i n image-forming area. Film should be ixed emulsion side up on the electrod Do not allow anything to contact the ilectrode except for the film and the abject to be photographed. Having positioned the film on the ilectrode, the object should be placed tirectly on the film. If you are usinga .mall object such as a leaf or a crystal, i t nust be connected t o the earth point of

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 experimenting, keep a full record o f the conditions under which the photograph i s taken, as you will find that the surrounding conditions temperature, humidity, and so on - and the settings o f the controls will cause alterations o f the image. I t will be useful to number each shot by some means so that i t can be compared later with notes

rhe famous 'phantom leaf photo. The top of the leaf was cut o f f before the ahoto was recorded, but it still appears, suggesting an 'energy body'.

Ă&#x192;

made at the time. This could be done by scratching a number i n the corner of the frame. ~ l t h o u g hgood results can be obtained with black and white film stock, you will probably find that colour film gives . more opportunity for detailed exa tion o f the resulting image, as very distinct colours will be observed in different parts o f the discharge. A relatively slow speed film, su 64 ASA will probably give best res although the best speed should be determined by experiment. Alternative t o the method described above, you can use a normal camera positioned t o shoot the object through a transparent conducting electrode. To do this, a suitable electrode should be obtained and the camera positioned on a small tripod below it, facing the underside, at a suitable distance t o fill the frame. Obiects are then placed on the upper electrode surface. The camera

Kirlian photo o f a ball-bearing dropped on to the electrode should be set on B or T and the shutter held open with a cable release for the duration o f the discharge. Exposures should, of course, b made in total darkness for best results

Safety Considerable voltages are generated n this unit while i t is in operation. I f i t i s found necessary to make internal adjustments t o the equipment, always switch off, unplug the device, discharge the one microfarad 500v capacitors.with an insulated screwdriver or other tool, then connect the 'hot' side of the capacitor to earth with a jumper lea (Remember the side rule 'Switch Isolate, Discharge, Earth'). Neithe Undercurrents or the designers can held responsible for any injury or damage resulting from the use or mi use of this device. When using the machine, do not operate i t on any person who has a history o f heart trouble or has an implanted pacemaker. The electromag netic field also produces a small quantity of X-rays, about as much as a colour T V set, so the device should not be used on the heart or genital regions. You have been warned. To eliminate the polarising effects o f bio-magnetic fields, Amos and Hickman recommend that anyone who works regularly with bioelectric/Kirlian fields and discharges should occasionally take a bath in a solution o f 1 tsp sea salt + 1 tsp. of soda in a tub o f water.

The Instrument The device described here is a high' frequency capacitive discharge system somewhat similar to some forms o f electronic car ignition. Thecapacitor in series with the TV line transformer is discharged by the Thyristor, or SCR (Silicon Controlled Rectifier). This gives a high voltage pulse from the transformer secondary; the SCR is controlled by a relaxation oscillator and timer. The device gives a low-current output of 20 K V at a frequency o f about 20-25 KHz, with a pulse repetition rate o f 250-2500 pulses per second. A rotary switch provides exposure timing. the

.I m~crofaradup to 10 seconds, and

i e t h ~ r dSWIM pmtiw br Iwger

erlods. The p&mtb&Ă&#x201A;ÂŁe R4 deterlines &emact time perkxi, while k 3 ontrokthe pulse repetihn rate. The machine should be assembled I an earthed metal box, or on a standard uminiurn chassis. Front panel contrels peSl ,S2 and S3; R3 a ~ R4. d The neun ldicatm should be similarly mow@. he Electrode outpwt should be termina:d with an EHT xmw-type terminal i d should be-nected to the electrode ith a hgth o f EHT cable of the type jed fer connectinerthe anodes o f TV lbes. A front-panel Earth Terminal ~oulddsobe provided. gn@ *w i' assembly, care should be taken +mtd overheating the ICs, which are &ysensitive to damage. Insert them E, or better still m w n t them in IC k i n sockets. The NE555 type IC's etwailatde packaged with two in a @e chip, under a different type numW. l k w should not be used, as they ~ 4 n t e r f e r ewith each 0 t h . A useful materid W use as an elec-' &e is a pkce of unetched printed wit board. This can be connected to ka@ho f EHT cable and mounted b a n insulated frame, to which ran he 4 the film carrier. m&penents List wistors

1 2 3

68K, 2W. 680R 4

5OK variable (linear) 1M variable (linear)

ipacitors

1 microfarad, SOOv, DC

Kirlian picture o f a fingertip of a person i n an 'alpha state' (see UC 11).

,"7

de lead to the output hrminal abd Mains power transf the electrode on an insulating primary 240-25&, Set the power switch and the e on/of#switch (S2) to the off daries 25@@250v, position. Set tbe rotary switch to the and 6.3v., 2A. 'long' setting (connected to ground) and Ntype line output transformer, B & W TV type?>+*$ rotate the pulse rate control fully clock wise. Plug in and switch on the power. Diodes The neon will light. Switch the electr Dl, D2, D3 any 1K V PIV, 1A, type D4 bridge rectifiqr, 12v rated. switch to on; you should be able to he D5 %limn Diode, any type a rising high-pitched tone, SCR 2N4101 (RCA) or 2N4444 the noise produced by an (Merota) flashgun. If no tone is hea Miscellaneous pulse rate control fully anticlockwi FSl Fuse, 2A (you may have it round the other way so,change round the outer two conMains neon panel lamp ctions to the pot. later on). The EHT wrminal, earth terminal, Fuse h vice will be operating until\you switch PCB for electrode, Chassis, IC holders, electrode switch off. If no tone can produced, switch off, side (see above) d check the wiring. If there appears I be no fault, replace the ICs. You may e damaged the IC's, or they may have faulty when you got them. Take back. Apart from the=, there i s little that can go wrong. And that's really all there is to it. If YOU have any problems, write to Un&r-

undercurrent!

In the type of social set-up AT makes possible, the role of women - and o f men - becomes transformed. Ruth Elliott shows the alienating effects of the Industrial Revolution and how we have yet to break o u t . . . . .he AT movement has only just begun t o ddress itself t o some aspects o f the vast lroblem area o f technology and social elations. One aspect that has been , ~otablyneglected is the relationship setween men and women, the social and echnical division o f labour between the txes. Way back i n summer 1973 the issue was irst raised in the pages of Undercurrents {hen Lyn Gambles wrote: "If all the (omen in the alternative science and :chnology movement end up building all he windmills, then no-one will be berated." But i n the intervening period $ere had been surprisingly little d )iana Manning's criticisms o f the iradford Conference (UC 14) - t h nere was little or no discussion o f .,?,2 few women are interested in te )gy or of issues like domestic work and hild care - can safely be generalised t o i e A T world as a whole. Rather than dding t o such accusations o f malehauvinist insensitivity however, this rticle i s concerned to open up a more onstructive debate by looking'at some o f he historical reasons underking this resent state o f affairs and exploring ieir implications for future strategy. I n many ways it is perhaps not surprisi g that women have been very much on ?e fringe, since A T has all too often been :en as synonymou<with hardware, and ardware i s the hallowed province o f the iale. The A T worldtlike its counterpart conventional technology, is very male. : iv men who experiment] innovate, arness and tame natural forces in the :mice o f human needs, and who are enerally at the forefront o f the battle >r survival; women, where they are ivolved, perform 'back up' or 'service'. >les or concern themselves with 'natural' rocesses o f child-rearing or food prouction. They appear t o be very dependi t for their survival on the technical skill ~d prowess o f men. Perhaps the immediate defensive :sponse of some people i s that this ivision o f labour is natural and levitable, and biologically preordained. he very popularity o f such myths is deed potent evidence o f the way in hich the history o f women has been dis)rted i n the name o f upholding male lpremacy. But fortunately the mythical nature o f 1ese arguments can be demonstrated if e pay some attention to the findings o f ithropological research. As Lee Comer 3s commented o f pre-literate societies1 : There i s hardly a single society which (isted (or exists) b y hunting alone. unting Wac mostaften a precarious and uitless exercise and at best provided

an addition t o the staple vegetable diet, and skins and materials from which t o make tools. These societies depended equally for their survival on the skills and ingenuity o f the women who gathered food, hunted small game, developed techniques with their digging sticks t o .cultivate crops, domesticated animals, milked and fleeced them, used fire to cook and preserve food, made pots, wove cloths, cured skins, discovered and refined herbal remedies, built houses, reared the young and cared for the old." As another writer has commented, the households these women managed "

whenA

h &bed

familiar one - that social relations are moulded by specific economic and technological developments and therefore can be susceptible to change through t conscious pursuit o f alternative econo~.,,and technological forms o f interaction. Any such strategy o f political and sopi-1 change, however, must be based on a clear understanding o f the historical processes i n which we are trying t o int vene. I t was'during the relatively recenc period o f the 'Industrial Revolution' that many o f the key changes that now characterise men's and women's role came about - in particular the separation of 'productive' work (men's work) from 'nonproductive' domestic work (women's work) and the separation o f the locus o f production (factory) from the locus o f consumption (family).

Before the Revolution

a d Eve span

who then was

. ..

Anthropology reminds us that women have not always been marginal t o the world o f technological development and innovation, acting purely as consumers. It reminds us also that no pattern o f social relations i s 'given' or inevitable. I n some primitive societies, the sexual division o f labour is as strong as it i s in our society; in others i t is minimal. The message i s the

In the period between the collapse o the Feudal System and the coming o f lndustrial Revolution, the family itself was the major unit o f production, pro. ducing goods both for self-sufficier survival and for exchange or sale. 1 was an integration o f domestic and economically productive work and me and women played roles i n both spher~ These social relations were based on a specific form o f economic relations yleina the unity o f capital and Iahnllr Th6,family both owned the stock tools and contributed the labour. ! example, the home o f a family engage( cotton production was like a m i n i a t u r ~ factory: the entire process o f production, rom raw material t o finished cloth, w<-, ontained within it. Women played as ital a role in all productive spheres as en. There is evidence that women's r' agriculture may have dominated tha men; women played a vital role in tl otton and woollen trades and also i n

eed brewing appears t o have been

rs, booksellers, printers, leathe1 arpenters, grocers, goldsmiths, apothecaries, blacksmiths) admitted women on an equal basis with men, an their charters expressly mention sisters well as brothers - some thin^ noticeabl absent often from the const~utionso f present-day trade union^.^ Along with this active productive rol a f women i n the economic life o f the community went a totally differel attitude to marital relations. Wher. married, women as well as men were

xpected t a ~ g on ~ yw~th.product~ve lork; there vasw idea, except among 1e uppa ciass, of the woman's :ono@& dependence on the man in

development of ' ~ n d u s ~ i a l . ~ a p i p l ~ w ' a . c h ~ l a e pto another. f'drenaauth.m&x the Ioc& o f wofk was &ifidM-tb coukl dill,by exwci&dL and &j&em home to ttk factory: The factory owners could be tramed by and apprenticed b now both pbvided capital and bought thdr patents as utxfer the ord domestic ystem.'" This indeed was the main

)llowingquote fromkn 18th century act ilktrates well t h i s point: "Consider ~ydear girl that .y . you cannot expect y h such a manner as neither of

logical developments too encouraged the g ~ t ofh factory production;as.early machines were improved and enlarged and adapFd to water and later steam power, cottages could no longer house Changes in social relations i n response to these developments were gradual rather than dramatic. The family did not immediately split into productive father

dfd not diffeieniate between period, the which today i s regarded $the sole province o f the marriedwoman kperformed by unmarriedguls and zys, knder the supervision o f the married m a n who herself worked in the family dvsby. It is an important but rarely w i s e d fact that male child servants #apprentices were as likely to be M v e d in housework and the care o f k f l h n atfemale children. The major . $%$on of labour in the family was in @by age and not by sex. The unskilled &4 technologically undemandimg work & r f o h e d by the young, but both . & g o u I d rest reassured that they were )$doomed to such activity for life. For f d t men and women, there was no prp distinction between domestic and @oink roles. When the place o f work the home or the area immediately ~ u n tfw d home, it was possible both for ie mother to be engaged in productive brk and for the father to6pend time i#hthe children. Neither was the sphere %dueation separated from the sphere of ?&uctive work. Children o f both sexes same familiar from an early age with k production technologies practisetl in [efamily unit.

at= Capitalism .

ifhe point of describing at t h i s length kdornestic and productive relations in $+reindustrial period i s not to extol it w e golden past to which we should k n ,but to focus attention on why th @ern of sexual and social division o f b@r that existed then has changed into every different pattern that exists now. key factor in this prowss,of change was shift in the economi~basis of proEtive activity, a gradual breakdown o f at integration o f capital and labour Fared to earlier, which again serves as reminder that we neglect at our peril e s m m i c basis o f alternative forms of

all of the family played an essential productive role that the whole family initially moved to the factow. As one writer has commented. "whole families would be hired, with the husband-father allocated to one job, and the women and

..-

th century against certain aspects of e factory system. They were disturbed t much of the exploitative and dehumanking nature of factory work, but being cautious middte class reformers and not

as a whole, but rather to protect the

. supposedly 'weaker' elements - first

children and later women -from i t s most brutal excesses. The unintended results of their wel[-meaning reforms. 2were far-reaching. The staCusof {Fiidret . * .

. -

L-Z+~

A?<

Costs of Electricity, Oil, Gas i $ d . i ~ < d l are ~ continually on the increase.-- so w h y not cut. your fuel bills by using Solar ~ n e - asburce r ~ ~ of free heat for almost all year round. The average*weeklycost of heating water in the1 home is over Ă&#x201A;ÂŁZ.Q and rising.

To cut the high cost of fossil .fuels .: . e the sun, it's free! ~

was fundamentally altered; they became intensified. Whereas in preinhstrial. pr-? A useful starting point IS to society women managed households -dependent, banished to the nonreview some o f the strategies put forward which were the first factories, labor* product~veworld of home. And with by other people and groups, under the tories, medical centres, today women play them gradually went women to tend the necessarily simplified headings o f the a marginal and subordinate role in all children. For as factories ceased to. 'radical feminist' strategy, the 'Marxist' these now separate institutions. Throughemploy the labour of whole families, the strategy, and the 'anarchist/Iibertarian2 out their socialisation women are employed mother (and father) came to strategy. The first two of these encouragedto see the process of technoface the modern problem of how to care approaches tend towards the view that logical innovation as a mole function and for children in a world which spatially current economic and technological .to see themselves as essentially consumers developments cont9in within them the divided home and work. The number of -,5 of technology. Such concepts of role married women working gradually seeds of our salvation. The third approach differentiation permeate our education declined and married women became -*"sGpresupposes a need for a fundamental increasingly associated with domestic, "@wstem, as the following telling extract break with existing forms of technical @g5nfromthe 1963 Newsom report indicates: non-productive work, and unmarried organisation. "A boy comes readily to his teacher women, for a temporary period before 1: The radical feminist approach hoping to learn how to control even&. marriage had real earning jobs. But Adherents to this approach, which has The girl may come to the science lesson because their productive work was seen found more supporters in the women's with a less eager curiosity than the boy, as essentially temporary, they gradually movement in America than i n this but she too will need to feel at home with took on a subordinate role in the procountry, believe that the dichotomy machinery and will be subject to the ductive process, and were assigned to between the domestic and productive unskilled rather than skilled work. The prestige which science has in the world." spheres of our lives and the implications process of technological disenfranchiseof this for male/female roles will be overment was beginning. ' come by ~ h n o l ~ i cdevelopments al that The increasing differentiation of child eliminate human involvement in the proand adult roles, and the increasing ductive sphere. Automation is the saviour. dependence of the child - reinforced by As well as relieving man of the need to the 1870 Education Act which provided sweat for a living, technological advance for compulsory elementary education for will simultaneously relieve women of the all children - heralded the dependence of need to sweat in labour and child-rearing, women in marriage and their restriction through advances in contraception and to the home, where they have l i t t l e to artificial reproduction: ". . a shifting share with the.ir children but their own emphasis from reproduction to contraisolation. Changing attitudes to sexual ception and demands for the full developroles were underpinned by the development of artificial rbproduction would ment of the Victorian doctrine o f provide an alternative to the oppressions feminine domesticity and reflected in the of the biological family; cybernation, by extension of factory legislation to include changing man's relationship to work and women of all ages along with children as wages, by transforming activity from 'protected persons'. Burdened now with 'work' to 'play' (activity done for its the moral and material duty o f supporting own sake), would allow for a total dependent wives and children, the male redefinition of the economy, includink factory workers joined forces with the the family unit in i t s economic capacity. reformers to get all women out o f the The double curse, that man should till t h e factories; women factory workers were soil by the sweat o f his brow, and that now seen as a threat to job security and Women's relationship to technology is women should bear in pain and travail breadwinning capacity. Some women did one of extreme alienation; in the sphere would be lifted through technology of course continue to work - it was of production they react to the dictates of make humane living, far the first time an economic necessity. But the norm, the machines, endlessly perfonhing.rnonoa p~ssibility."~ The implication i s that image to aspire to beyme.the middle tonous unskilkd operations; i n the sphere mankind has the scientific and techn~ class image of domesticity and of consumption they are urged to acuqire logical capability to transcend the bi( dependence. ' . more and more of the high technology logical bases of the sexual division of products of the productive world - prolabour. One hundred years later. ducts designed to require minimum skill Women'now make up 38% of the work2: The Marxist approach and knowledge ta operate. force, and 62% of working women are To oversimplify grossly, the Marxist Scientific management? married. Women are no longer creatures approach sees the route to salvation and who exist wholly in the domestic sphere. Of course, this alienation is by no means liberation, not through the abdition ~f And indeed it i s undeniable that in the human involvement in productive WOI confined to women. The intensification of last few decades, there has been a growing but through the full reintegration o f the subdivision of labour in industry has demand for female labour in certain women into the productjve process. 1 meant that all workers have experienced clearly involves the 'socialisation', thrvww sphered o f the economy, and women have a loss o f skill and technical competence in state institutions, of large parts o f the re-entered the productive sphere i n large their jobs. Managements have been only domestic role of women, and in particular numbem. However, they still~donot too aware that knowledge is 8 key to of the child-rearingfunction. To quote participate in productive work as equals control and have been concerned to Engels "...the emancipation of womewith men. They are very much r w r d e d follow the principle of F.W. Taylor, the and their equality with men are as temporary or floatingmembers of the f+thw of!scientific management' in impossible and must remain so as long as workforce, to be employed when needed transferring all possible brain work from women are excluded from socially proand laid off first when demand falls. the shop to the highw levels o f the Employers do not think it worthwhile to * industrial hieratwhy. It is w s e women ductive work and restricted to housework invest i n the training of women, and SO which is private. The emancipation of are at the very bottom of this hierarchy women becomes possible only when women are concentrated into a particular %at the problems o f ationation are so group o f largely unskilled 'women's jobs' acuteforthem. , . women are enabled to take part in production on a large, social, scale, and many of which often mirror the 'sewice' What is to be done? when domestic duties require their functions of their d6mestic role. Nearly attentmn only t o a minor degree."'Thi 8 out of 10 women work in one of the So what a n we do? What strateg full involvement o f women in the promy, are available for transfarming the four types o f job: - office/communicaductive sphere would provide an organtians, caterhg/dmestic, unskilled/semisocial division d WW* in~l~&g r e ~ t i e n ~ b e w e e n ~ ~ a t d and w o ~ n . isational base for men and women to skilled manufa&wirt& sales. The technostruggle together for the transformation 16gkatdisenfranchis~menthas been what is the role of technology in this

. ..

...

ductive process would be part of the ?!y...SsPt@re4 MS f~ arfibtegShq4 the & m m i c retations that at prt education process, and child labour would ... ,' , ~ i .~ F W S to ~ ~ Srnafi:scale W ploit k t h sexes, a transformation o t h am imi mtratised productibn would hdp.i i&.inevitably come about as the ieving this, centring productim on Woping forces o f production, under;trategies,for t k fu the self-contained unit o f the famjly or wed by technological advances, o The first two o f these three approach{ commune, where capital and labour are hv the confines of the existing . %i?.sith their shades o f Bruve New WO ha once more reunited. peter H~~~~~ ihomic framework. @;%em, to me at any rate, to pose m explored iame of h e various options1 hrchist/Iibertarian approaul problems than they answer. Can you 6) recognising that there might be (UC %is approach is based on a belief bQ1l.y automate the productive sphere? a continued need for the l?rge-scale mass is not wi,thin exisc,ng Wouldn't mankind be even mor production of s~me~~b$c~c$rn ponents iial processe5; it i s not just a case of alienated if human involvement but stressing thifas.faPa?$ossible, prt Ling as a $midwifepto processesalready dsctive work is totally abolished?Do w' duction should be based on small loca ing on. The only way to transform w n t artificial reproduction and isn't th, units. The advantage of this is that the ;ial relations is to make a fundamental the height of alienation? ~~d anyway differentiation of roles between men, %akwith prewnt forms of technologica precisely who up there is orchestrating women and children could be conpnisation.. What is needed above all i s all these incredible technological develol siderabl~reduced. All can be involved in imple technology which is accessible to B~ far the most attractive of the the productive technology o f the corn ,people, men and women, specialists approaches to date as far as the AT movemu nit^; both men and women d non-specialists, a technology that is ent has been concerned i s the third combine productive work with enable to decentral local control and entralised low-technology approach. es away with the need for huge conere have been numerous experiments mune living committed to nontive technology and non-alienat1 lations. The overall impression i sexual division of labour has be break, but at the same time ther nce that thpse social and proe units can provide the sort of onment thht i s a stimulus to changt Philip Brachi has commented of the nt: "As people are in freedom, sexist r rred or broken: a man child-minder, a cook; a woma carpenter, a car-mechanic." P eludes "the essential message

C O M E INTO THE F A C T O R I E S

compared wi open communal living Important as such experiments in @If3 sufficient rural communal living are,th< are inevitably doomed to be 'marginaly: Most of us liveand will continue to livt and work in the large product,iveorganisations of which Engels was talking. An1 indeed few communes would suwive without these lqge productive organisa tions that produce the basic hardware for their technological experiments. In the largesale mass production urban wqrld the potential for developing alternative technologies may.be more limited although initiatives like the Lucas one ar experiments in community technology suggest there may be more potential tha! many once thought; and there. i s uhdoubtedly unlimited scope in terms o devising strategies that encourage men and worn? to change their attitudes t o techw!ogy and to eachhther, and to develop an awareness o f the need for more wide-rangingeconomic, social and kchnological change. A central element .of all such strategies must be that they .help to break down the divisions betw@n the productive and domestic~worlds.This

f encouraging w m & ve role in the pro&dvg

4,'

~t wertly challenge or subvert our )minant forms of social and economic ganisation and confirm people in belief that alternative forms of social, chnical and economic organisation are )th necessary and possible. For exampl omen can not fully re-enter the proictive sphere unless there i s adequ aternity leave and child care facili iless indeed there is a move towar socialisation of child care. These deman ' will not be won withoutastrueele. but such struggles will be important politic^ and social processes in themselves.' Abov

organisation and struggle there might arise a questioning of the emphasis o f our present system on satisfaction in consumption rather than in production, a questioning o f the logic of a system that forces workers to spend their days in soul destroying and indeed dangerous woi , order to produce 'labour-saving' consumer goodies. Women at present are some of the major defenders of everincreasing'affluence, often because it is onlv through material possessions that ey feel they can define and enhance eir status, given the low social status of e role of housewife. By participating

s-Â¥r%

question of technical expertise and education. For unless women acquire a greater range of technical skills they wffH 'Â¥ remain second class producers in a lowpaid and exploited ghetto of women's jobs. It might be argued that women are ! best uncontaminated by present technology. But this is questionable. By becoming more involved in technologk developments women may well become more actively critical of present modes of technology. Clearly the root of this. . problem lies in ourschool and higher 4 ition system, but there are also

rain more women for technician jobs,

-; .,

;

quite fundamental assumptions of our present technological and economic system - do we all need our washing machines, TVs and so on. Linked to idea of community workshops and communi allotments such experiments can help blur distinctions between sexual roles, between the productive and domestic spheres, and rather than dividing men, women and children can help integrate them into a world of shared experiences The message for those o f us who wan, AT to go hand in hand with alternative forms of social and economic organisation i s clear. We're ducking the issue i f v concentrate on the nuts and bolts and vaguely hope that the rest will all fall inbu_

Fireball

THE GROUND 1 ie Terrestrial Zodiacs

With wide publicity given by the media to the new awareness that our reh historic ancestors were not skin-clad, woad-painted savages, but skilled mathematicians and surveyors, the concepts o f geometricaliy-sophisticated stone circles as oosited bv Prof. A. Thorn and the existence of aligned prehistoric monuments, the leys, as rediscovered by Alfred ~ a t k h s have , allowed a new spirit of interpretation of the past. Related, with apparent equal importance are the terrestrial zodiacs - astrological designs evolving across the countryside. Paul Screeton, author of Quicksilver Heritage and former editor of The Ley Hunter, here presents the fullest account yet published of the unfolding tapestry of our landscape. MRS KATHERINE MALTWOOD 'was pottering around the Glastonbury area when she was struck with a thought that may yet turn out t o be as profound as Newton's observation o f the falling apple or the Duke o f Edinburgh's recurring obsession with his ebbing bathwater. She had stumbled upon ai outline o f a zodiacal sign'. Thus wrote Geoffrey Moorhouse i n an article. Despite articulate commentaries i n u l t magazines and the occasional .ious1newspaper or magazine, restrial zodiacs are still not part o f general public consciousness. amancy i s the study o f sacred history 1 leys have become a lynch pin. portant as they are, they have vastly trshadowed research into terrestrial liacs and this article is designed to .ourage a partial redressing of the ance; also consolidate the view that re may be laid across Britain - likely whole world - a system o f designs ed upon astronomical relationships igned-in these forms and with sites ned by association i n the landscape. Too many people who have vaguely ne across the subiect believe the nerset Giants around Glastonburv st, even ifthey considered their isible validity, be a freak construe? n. Mrs Maltwood wrote extensive!: i n the subject, but her discovery i from unique, so let me restart a t )ther point ~~

~~~

the astrological figures on an Ordnance Survey map, reflecting the heavens in the landscape around the appropriately termed Middles, where on Sunday afternoons elderly Geordies play tossing two coins i n the air with a forgotten remembrance o f a rite associated with the sun and moon. We went t o Hart and wandered into the churchyard. Inside, the elderly Canon D.T. Eastwood gave us - including the dog Avalon - a conducted tour o f the Saxon church. Interestingly his first comment concerned 12 effigies which he pointed out, with perhaps a twinkle i n his eye, did not, except for one, relate t o 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 o f figures Fleet Shot Hill Zodiac. But more o f this anon, for again I backtrack i n a sense - t o Tom's revelation, for this focusses the dual factor in the research between logical conjecture and that which is characteristically triggered by supernatural agency.

As Tom wrote: 'On New Year's Eve, 1969, my wife, two friends and myself were in m y home. I was busy working 01 a chart in an attempt t o discover the cause o f climate effects. It was a bea clear night and terrestrial phenomena wa quite active. The conversation from my wife and friends was concerned with the festive mood. Leaving the 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 o f my attention being drawn out o f the window. Someone mentioned it was near midnight. The radio was switched on for 'Trafalgar Square' celebrations. We were expecting 'first foots', which i s a custom i n the North East. But on the stroke o f mid- , night, from the south-western horizon, appeared a large ball o f fire, coming straight at me. I called for the others while mentally landmarking its position. It came to a place called the Middles and departed back over Taylors Hill. Not having a map, I used a celestial char1 as a substitute. The result was incredible It had come to point and returned at an angle o f 30Ă&#x201A;Â°T^o knowing this area like my hand, it appeared t o land at Langley Castle (Old Lang Syne). The following 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. Laying the maps, corresponding with the celestial north o f my charts, I quite soon discovered a coincidence. This phenomei on moved along Aquarius t o the centre, then along the winter solstice line. Now, in that area lies a place called Cornsay (Cronus gave his name to corn; Saturn is the ruling planet o f Capricorn). From this I used the Middles as my celestial pole and plotted a map o f the heavens 01 the O.S. map. The result was this, on eac star o f the constellation there corresponi ed a mound, spring, pit, waste ground, etc on the land. But by far, more obviou were the place names, pub names etc.

~~~

.cuse me, but . . . There was a knock at me aoor. Ine )rt, wiry, mid-30s stranger with rainiraggled hair, Peter Wyngarde-style lustache and accompanied b y a deer~ n d announced , with abrupt assured,S that he had discovered a County rham terrestrial zodiac. By letter hor John Michell had suggested he get touch with me and he had literally nped straight into his Land Rover and ven down t o Hartlepool from Norths t Durham. Over spaghetti and chips we discu! : implications o f the newly-reveale inley Zodiac. Using bright paints the gmatic gypsy had traced and filled i n

ph (courtesy Aerofilms Aerofilms Ltd.) Ltd.) of of Barton Barton St. St. David, David, showing showing the the Dovi DOV~ ~ . ~ . e r s Zodiac. et

From this I decided that each zodiacal" for instance, where Leo would lie we nonth I would examine soecies in its have Pawton Hill and Crookfoot ;orresponding area. Of course, quite soon Reservoir where the beast's forelegs lie t became apparent that the footpaths and a Red Lion public house in the Mere charted to fit the celestial chart. I sector. )egan to map them out. The result being But it is to the Glastonbury Zodi h e zodiac in tapestry, as well as other that we must look for the fullest con,onstellations in the land. firmation that terrestrial zodiacs are a 'To anyone interested in this, I recomreality. Though Elizabethan astrologer nend the following procedure. Setyour Dr John Dee is alleged to have referred loints or compass 4 % ' radius for a 1" to to the pattern*, Mrs Maltwood deserve! he mile map, use the Middles as your to be the person most associated with ;entre, Iveston as the vernal equinox, this zodiac. &r book, 'A Guide to ind begin as for a celestial chart. It would Glastonbury's Temple of the Stars', i s )e helpful to note that the lamb's tail an intuitive, erudite account of her aegins at Lope Hill (to frisk), Taurus is discoveries, descriptions of the places, Miite-le-Headand Tanfield, Virgo is Vigo, interlaced with folklore and mythology, Libra is Chester-le-Streetand Lumley, particularly of the exploits of King Scorpio (The Lambton Worm) etc . .' Arthur arid his knights. She believed I had a strange respect for Tom that in Somerset the Arthurian Grail ihough never really came close to figur-'legends accumulated and could be ng him out. Nearest comparison would be localised. that between author Carlos Castenada In considering the possibility that ind Yaqui Indian shaman Don Juan, for anyone could see such creatures on an\ Tom was always testing me. Typically, map, she pointed out that it 'would be i e vanished in an aura of mystery. impossible to find acircular traditional design of zodiacal and other constellation figures, arranged in their propel ITie present situation order, and corresponding with their When asked to contribute a survey of respectivestars, unless they had thu present state o f zodiac research, I been laid out in sequence, according hsed how painfully inadequate had to plan'. aeen the investigations and see the finger o f accusation pointed at myself - and others. My personal research has been The Astral Zodiac cant, though I have keenly documented The zodiac, as known by astrology others' work, but I do believe that among and astronomy, is a band encompassing the zodiacs I have postulated the one *editorial note. ;entred upon Fleet Shot Hill i s valid. Just

the paths of the planets, sun and mooit, with the ecliptic at i t s centre. It has been shown to be common to China, American and Western Asia, and possibly the Indus area in prehistoric times, with the Sumerian zodiac accepted commonly as the oldest and seems, from cornmentators, to have appeared there fttliy 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, I suspect the zodiacal identification began in Britain and that i t s recognition was here most completely developed. The zodiac i s a highly subjective construct involving star groups giv the symbolic forms of living beings (e cept Libra). Apart from Scorpio,jhe constellation patterns do not really resemble the figures they represent. Consequently the presence of rough! similar zodiacs in widely separated ;as suggests borrowing from some l y centre, as yet unidentified. Regularity of division can be another area of objection for-the sceptic, for this is not a characteristic o f the earliest Zodiacs. Earliest versions may have been limited to the constellations serving by their helial rising to indicate solstices and equinoxes. The Indus zodiac may have had eight divisions, but the Mesopotamians had 12 sections or houses of 30Ă&#x201A; each designated by zodiacal signs.

and the versica-piscis shaped NuthampSEY by Rick MasW.. . I n the North East, in addition to stead Zodiac in the Sky Counties those mentioned, I suspect one centred documented by marine biologist Nigel upon MOUNT PLEASANT, south of Pennick. Without maps and extensive Yarm in Cleveland. correlative philogistic data, the reader Scotland, I've heard has zodiaĂ&#x192; s asked to regard these as being extremenear Edinburgh and Glasgow tho y probable designs and i s encouraged I've yet to positively identify either to follow the bibliographic references. (but it i s possible that there i s a MIDBut there are plenty of other conLOTHIAN ZODIAC pivoted on Sclad tenders for affirmation. So, let me Law with Arthur's Seat in Sagittarius introduce: and Roslin in Scorpio). Sir Alexarfder Other Possibilities Oeston. in a serious archaeological work.' E noted that the form of the H ~ W OF Mike Collier has done some preliminCROMAR resembled a man's head facing iry mapping of figures in SUSSEX and admitted i n a letter to me that his 'only westwards, and I've also had suggested to reason for suspecting a Zodiac seems me that BENACHIE in this county of verv slight now:. I-Iowever. he notes Aberdeenshire mav be a zodiacal centre. ~ r g o sHili is roughly where Cancer would Additional to Lewis Edwards's Pumplie, with the stellar ship Argo Navis. He saint Zodiac, John Michael has been points out associative animal names and working on a PRESCELLY ZODIAC, adds, 'I do know a lot of the area and , in Wales. am convinced there i s something important here1. Summing Up . Philio Heselton oosited a zodiac in the HOLDERNESS district of East There is not space to attempt a detailYorkchire and published preliminary ed evaluation of the terrestrial zodiac findings in 77>e Ley Hunter. This examphenomenon, but I would insist that the ple, however, if verified, would be Soirferset Giants should be seen in the unique as it is upside down. wider context of a nationwide system Jimmy Goddard mapped a Virgo of geomantically-precisefeatures. It is figure around WEYBRIDGE, Surrey, and on checking with Mary Caine that it ~ o h ~ a r i s of o nthis illustration with the was not associated with the Kingston previous one shows how the figure is Zodiac, was informed that she had delineated. found a 'shadow zodiac' within her circle. '

Maltwood, the original disthe Glastonbury Zodiac.

e central problem has taken some time to work

rrestrial zodiacs, yet 1 evidence must appear

Mary Caine's construction for the figure of Christ (Gemini) at Dundon.

roughs. With diplomacy, what is presented

nicants, but without spending a amount of time on such a project e critically analyse such some comments on the zodiacs, whose validity table, but deserve no quick

e (who has also done sterling work

The BANBURY ZODIAC has been mapped by Peter Dupernex andalso in Oxfordshire i s a series of figures '. around SINODUN HILL. including a 'i

too early io formulate general theories dmgmd disuibution of theastrological forms, but Ihold a persodconviction that the-shapes are a

were suggested by Jonathan How. Further east i s the CHIPPING ONGAR

assistance in a controlled grand scheme, &!at they are constantly evolving and

I s Glastonbury theCradle of ttw Future', 'The Countenanceof the Future' C.D.F. Shepherd (respectively Tore 4,3,5,6). spect of the Mysteries. Hunter's Tale' Tony Wedd (The Ley Hunter 2 (TLH] repr For the Time To Come Together' looks , ,.=- ffl- -L"a- booklet) Glastonbury. 'Temple of the Stars' Ge ishe, Geoffrey 'The Finger a&&l%&~ house (The Guardian) Talk wit (Panther, 1925)- Glastonburtf*>" : the Caines. lord, Janet & Colin 'MysteriousBritai&& "^^-i- 'W'The Glastonbury Giants' (Paladin, 1974) Glastonbury. . bltwood, K 'A Guide to lasto on bury'&$%%^ *" (Prediction, series beg" Temple of the Stars' (1924; reprint- z~%"w,@<pe Nuthampstead Zodi versions) Nigel Pennic ed JamesClarke & Co, 1964); Air V i i w Supplement to former (London.;c Voice, series 3, No 2; 37); 'The Enchantments of B r i t a i h ~ ~ ~ ~ - Welsh * - - * ~Temple e of th ?+-la, British Columbia, 1946);

hat a national pattern will be discernale eventually. I forecast a great upsurge i r

magazine on terrestrial zodiacs. Anyone interested is free to drop a line (please enclose 5a.e.) to P. Screeton, 5 Egton Drive, Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, Cleve" land, TS25 2AT.

?LT

of McCormick's books, on Jack The Ripper, he also presented 'startlingnew evidence'. But when the Sunday Times

Glastonbury. leiser, Oliver L. 'This Holyest Erthe' 1974) Glastonbu

Mankind' (Spearman, 1962) Glastonbury.

John Dee and the Glastonbury This is one of those references that gained spurious 'authority'by being quoted a lot. We have researched it quits 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 which the author purports to refer to Dee's Diaries. Mary Caine, the leading researcher into the Glastonbury term trial zodiac, asked McCormick for the exact reference, having failed to find i in any of the libraries of Dee's work. McCormick 'told her he had 'lost his

ns, he had similarly 'lost

'The Holderness Zodiac' Philip Heselton

references as spurious, and advise researchers to ignore it in future. The earliest reference to a Zodiac at Glastonbuty we could find was in

John Eyre (Torc 13) The Glastonbury Zodiac' John Michell (Torc 11) Pictures In The Sky/Pictures On The Earth' Paul Screeton (Torc 6) Most zodiacs. The Return Road From Avalon', 'Why I Love Glastonbury', 'Wh

Katherine MaltwcĂ&#x192;Â§d' Orioinal Zodiac

Mary Caine's refinements of some of the figures

Monev and Medicine kalth#,Moneyand the National Health Service. Unit for the Study o f Health ~ o l i c y 3pp. 60p including UK postage from UHSP, 8 Newcornen St., London SE1 1YR. he contents o f this small, cheap nostrum, taken literally, will prevent 80% o f current.. iseases. The cure is drastic, consisting o f a complete change in the structure and nphasis o f our society, but will be painless except for those with a vested interest in ie present set-up. Inks than 60 pages the authors, "an interdisciplinary team part o f the Departlent o f Community Medicine. Guy's Hospital Medical School". assess the effective issof the N.H.S. compared with the health services o f other industrialised countriw, &dependenceon the rest of the U.K. economy, the stateof the U.K. economy and< .;;, ie irrelevance o f conventional economic thinking to our present situation. -.,..;.-. In particular they are scathing about the continuous growth policy and the.,, @tessnbso f G.N.P. asa measure o f anything worthwhile. They show that the high-technology, floth defending the N.H.s*s share o f & igh-science, last minute cure approachto crumbling national cake and 'sitting tight', ealth, that is hospital services,has that is making the least painful cuts while ached the point where increasing. waiting for the economy to improve (?), : cpenditure produces a rapidly diminish is to accept the existing, implicit philoĂ&#x192; Â§ negligible increase in average life sophies o f the health service. Unions fpectancy. Theefficacy of such myopic approach is questionable for 'fight' the cuts; Health Authorities such / as West Essex make selective cuts, geriatric iree main reason^. One; lower death or maternity care for the knife? ites from infectious diseases often result B y contrast the authors then outline om imporving living conditions before the characteristics of a health-promoting idespread immunisation begins. Two; economy - reduction of stress, involven o f the most prevalent diseases in ment o f the population in health care

. ..

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 avoidingmany o f the irrationalities and economic nonsenses . associated with indiscriminate growth. Such an economic framework would, however, necessitateother changes of a perhaps more controversial nature." . (my emphasis). Second prize goes for this gem;realise, o f course, that the chances or observing such fundamental changes i r the short term are not high." You said a mouthful there, chaps. As the concentration o f facts.and ideasb is pretty fierce I would like to see an expanded version.~edicatedA.T1ers a@ social reformers will be familiar with most o f the arymeng and references, but for preaching t o the unconverted the. ideas need much more room to develop, Some o f the references, particularly newspapers, are not easy t o 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 t o atrophy because it's just not needed any more. Those criticisms apart, this pamphlet should cause quite* few people t o 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 Kanner

Corn The Energy Question, Gerald Pelican Original. 344 pages. 9

Gerry Foley has put tog prehensive guide to the various ener . sources, conversion, analysis and co servation techniques, including on conventional fossil'and nuclear technology and the 'ambient' alter If you need a simple, cheap, text-b style introduction, then this is it raises few questions, despite its tit1 Rather it argues for moderation i n things. Let's explore nuclear power calmly and slowly, and let's not beli all you hear from the Utopian alterna tqchnologists. Let's rather get down planning a viable pattern o f energy use and conservation. Essentially it i&a comforting book ideal forbriefing platform speakers and

.. At

^ ity planners, filled with measured ommon sense, rather than rhetoric. 'ersonally, however, I missed the analytic erseness of Chapman's Fuels Pafadise nd the aggressiveness of Boyle's Living w the Sun. And Ican't accept Foley's

~ ~ d e i t e 47 fft~~ Â¥y

Stockholm or Moscow'. Rather it i s the other way around . . the potential for advanced technology, of the sort generated by and for capi capitalist) societies for su thing approachingan equ reasonable life-style i s inc

. .

.- ~ , Ã , Ã ',. . - V c -‘ Â¡n < a .

- - ?-T-

. - ..,-.-.,4

cnn&er,SyHpliytsiHpertpvwm,nttodutxdb~ thei87oÃ§,-,wfaruweknow,afast

ielding plants for r( se of establishing it problem of making

feasible farming methods are developed

itamin content o f tfeeir eggs, particularly itamins A and Bn, is much higher than hat o f battery farm eggs. This book i s the story o f comfrey and , awrence Hills efforts to bring it t o the ttention o f the agricultural world, ovemments and the general public trough the Henry Ooubkday Association e founded. He thoroughly, methodically. iodestly search- out the facts about omfrev from over a century o f con~sion. For instance comfrey, species name ymphytum Peregrinum, has upwards o lirty different varieties inclutffng the rild comfrey, S. Officinale, long known .~lherbalists. Buf@e highest yielding comfrey was Russian Comfrey; a rare F, hybrid cross o f caucasion S. Asperrimam and S. Officinale imported frdm Russia in '871 as a source of gum for stamps! ~eneticss t i l l being unaccepted the danger f a hybrid's performancedegenerating fithsuccessive generations, unless proagated vegetative@, was not realised. low only inferior descendants frota the ybrid remain. Named after Booking here the author founded the Comfrey A*iatton in 1954, these.

istioct yanetfes nphave~ctritiv~-'

imes; Bocking No. T, Bocking no.2, etc. his i s very important as each Booking

The Generation of Electbicity by Windpower, E.W. Golding. E. and F.N. Spon, hardback Â£6.00 CTT,paperback Â£4.50 This standard work on windpower technology'has been out o f print for nearly twen years so its reissue is a welcome and significant development. It was written in the early fifties when energy prpipectsfor Westep Europe were bleak and there was coi. siderable interest in harnessing renewable energy sources. Subsequently cheap Middle Eastern oil supplies and the era of nuclear euphoria combined to divert attention from this desirable field o f scientific research and it is only in recent years that interest has returned. - -. large-scale power plants, and cost-benefit It is a thorough and unimpeachable analysis. Anyone who has digested the volume, covering in rigorous detail yet. contents o f this book will be in a position accessible style every major aspect o f to do useful work. windpower theory. I t s particular strength It i s not by any means a dawdle. It deals \ is the eight chapters given over to technically with a technical subject and meteorology, geography, wind behaviour find it easy 2&&%@lan engineer and power.profiles:'here the reader will enougfl a lion-specialist should expect to find a completeanatysiiof wi'nd, what it do some heavy slogging before it starts does,andwhatit~q making sense. But that ought not to deter There follow chapters on A.C. generators, anyone from making the effort: the propeller design, small-scale power plants,

tary technical understand-

\VhirlWinCl ou had a 10 ft diameter windmill

bridge, Wilts, BA14 9BG. 50p monthly,

This is a delight. Terence Meaden

where f t often sunk without The material and its presentation are

both metereologists good; the of several Britain thousand are clearly amate& wen informed and keen on observation. The content, while not filled with mathematical theory, i s a glorious mix o f good ideas; hardware ideas, for example on the value of radio-teleprinter links to amateur metereologists, historical metereological happenings, (some positively Fortean), and the procee s of T.O.R.R.O. This is the Tornado Storm Research Organisation devoted t o investigating the largely unknown

common in the observational sciences like

taking on and more than beating the pr<

except via ephemeral local societies from

essential reading.

n the stronger 'energy on the other two. Thi' mph wind has eight times thc

they conceived of windmillt in terms of megawatt capacities supplying the CEGB kn the same basis as oil- or coal-fired power stations. Today the emphasis smaller units designed to supply indi homes or communities, usually in th context of more frugal energy-use, a this i s an aspect which Golding devo relatively slight attention to. His cost-accountancy, while introducinl auseful criterion of judgement, is strictly limited to the cash nexus and an industrial ,mode o f production. Strict cost-accountancy 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 the conventional barriers o f cost-benefit analysis: it i s an outlet for people's enthusiasm - it has

The book begins with an excellent

less and useful techniques. A number o f the book's assertions, like those on the natureof the mind, and to some extent " on the ability to dissolve accumulated stress, are not scientifically corroborat.q ith psychological so-called-science in e state i t is everyone i s competent to eir own theory o f mind and so i uld not worry us. Right the way this part Pete Russelt uses on-answer technique to counter cipated criticisms, this makes f o style JeavJng open few cracks in

In the next section, the higher states of consciousness, beyond waking, dreaming and sleeping, that are attainable-through regular meditation are described and di< cussed. A t this point intellectual reason ing must always break down. We can characterise a fourth state of consciousness as mind without thoughts, conscio~ ness itself, Being etc. However, to .identify this fwe Self with the Absolut or unmantfest, from which unfolds creation and intelligence, is a step which cannot be taken on paper. Ultimately this can only be validated in the

should preclude e a f i ether. He then tries to put all this into'perspective with the Humanist and Transpersonal schools of psychology, epitomised by Abraham Maslow and Roberto Assagioli respectively. He compares the effects of meditation with selfactualisation as defined by Maslow and the self-transcendingaspects o f the second school. Obviously the progression to afully enlightened person goes far beyond scoring high on 'Shostmm's PersonalOrientation Inventory' and this is brought out in his attempt to convey the difficult concept of Unity Consciousness (seventh state). "The balancing o f opposites by an enlightened man i s not a compromise of opposites; it i s a true synthesis o f opposites. .. intellectual and intuitive; scientific and artistic; concrete and abstract." I believe that the comparison between the two models, evolution of consciousness and Woody's culture theory, i s not entirely accidental. In society, individuality 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-authority 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 o f mnsciousness. This i s relevant to the final part called the 'Consciousness Revolution' where he idmits that some fundamental changes in society will come about as a result of the nass practice of T.M.; viz: "We will not Â¥ able to build a non-exploitative, iolistic, ecological ethic into our policies ~nlessit is also built into our awareness . Me need to know it organically, at the ieart of our being, rather than just ;erebrally as part of our reasoning. " Jnfortunately this islibout as far as he I am sure he would like to go further >ut a teacher of the techniquehe feels ;Oe& unstrained to follow the strongly % [political party line. fcThe implications for society o f a large lumber of people meditating may be very irofound. The time is now due for someme, probably outside a movement like, the Maharishi's, to present the case for meditation t o those interested in social change of various kinds in such a way as to answer the question: "Is 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 t o realise their aims without internal stress. And for those who feel that, like many religions, T.M. helps to maintain the complacency of large numbers o f people. Similarly it would be interesting to know ifthe sharpness with which many people .-tho meditate perceive their responsbilities and relative position in the world d u e to their meditation or due to their ersonalities. The complete answers to these uestions are not to be found i n this

Birthday Birth Without Violence, F. Leboyer. Wildwood House. Â£2.95.106~~ Does it matter whether babies scream or smile at birth? Experts say conscious aware ness only comes as it grows older. Dr. Leboyer disagrees. A foetus in the womb can sense light and dark, sounds andmovements but is protected from the extremes out ' side. So we should do all we can to make the change from womb to world as gentle wssible. Without the stress and trauma o f modern birth. For consider, in the civilised hospitals o f the West one is born straight from the dark, warm, wetness of the womb into the full glare o f floodlightsBnd the hurlyburly 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 i s that the room should be in semi-darkness, and very quiet. Immediately after birth the child i s placed face down on i t s mothers stomach, i t s ear near her familiar heartbeat, while still attached to the umbilical cord. This 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 carries 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 baby has moved its limbs, it is exploringly removed from the bath, then returned there, and so on. Gradually it becomes used t o the new environment. Then it is wrapped in wool, cotton and love,and laid on its side, secure in this

I AM AWMAN GIVING BIRTH TO MYSELF

Dowse it yoursel*,

world. Atnresent this style o f natural childbirth is probably be& carried out at home rather than in large hospitals. Time is needed for the birth to be natural and unhurried. Complicated deliveries must s t i l l take place in hospitals. Even here the environment could be made less harsh. Dr. Leboyer was promoted Chef de Cffnique in the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1953. He has been working out his ideas on birth without violence for the past ten years. His descriptions o f birth, both orthodox and natural7re almost poetic. Each action, each stage of the birth and each minute feeling o f the child are beautifully and tenderlyexplained. The translation has been remarkably welt done. I n black and white, the illustrations show the differences between birth with fear and violence and this natural way which instils confidence and happiness in the child from the very beginning o f its life. The more 1 read this book, the more I discover about life. feeling and

Principles & Practice o f Radiesthesia, Abbe Mermet. Watkins Publishers. 231 Â£2.25 Dowsing: The Ancient A r t o f Rhabdomancy, Robert H. Leftwiett. Thorsons. 64pp. 50p. The Power o f the Pendulum, T.C. Let . bridge. R.K.P. 140pp. Hard cover Â£3.25 Dowsing, Tom Graves. Turnstone Books: 160pp. Â£-75. The art o f dowsing, part science, pat artistic sensitivity and awareness, offers several different approaches to the writel intent on spreading his knowledge o f subject. These approaches are well covered in these books. Dowsing i s not just water-divinms though sometimes referred to as seas for hidden water or mineralswith the or pendulum. Technically knowmas radiesthesia, it can be defined simp& 'sensitivity to radiations'. The terms-* often interchanged.

iscuss the theory? Let's just ge do it, and ask why later." Thi:

and away the best I have seen. I first met Tom Graves at Comt~

Ie who couldn't were those p~ ed by their own expectations, and they were often convinced by the

Wind, Power Politics

!pretty sure that the aspect of dowsing at interests you is in there, if you cart ily get in and find it! When you locate e item you are looking for you care o f a good crop o f hypotheses i//s, ~ e t ~ ~ ~ r i e i i k ' e l . - . l . ndon WC2 *-,~-*,. . lidated by experiments with t h o r o ~ ~ 1 1 1 y . .., '*<.;;., ..*. ijective titles, like Branly's Experiment, . T e Prism Experiment, the Solar Ray A t first glance thislookslike anomer oureiv techn -...- .[periment, etc. Mermet was no doubt o f a successful attempt by the ~merican.~resbyterian Mission to provide wind-powered enpinion that radiesthesia could be irrigation for the Geleb peoplewholive near the Omo Mission station in South died successfully by anyone. Western Ethiopia. But Peter Fraenfcel succeeds in illuminating a tot more than just tht h i s view is not shared by Robert technical, agricultural and e w i w m k problems inherent in the project, and their ftwich. He was walking along the road solutions asperfectedby the engineers: he also makes clear that, "the social and e dav and saw a dowser in action cultural side o f applying this technology may be more critical in effecting the success >kingfor underground pipes at the side' o f it than seeking technical Derfection." the road. Leftwich asked if he could powered pump to irrigate his fields, he On the surfacerof course, the solutions has to get permission to erect his wind1 ue a go. The rods practically leapt out must have seemed fairly obvious. The his handwhen he tried them. So when from someone who owns a stretch o f Geiebs needed a means of irrigation to river bank. Such permission is not alwa enable them to practise year-round says "It is believed that twenty-five forthcoming, at least one owner has tri cultivation and so alleviate their chronic r cent of the population are potential to charge a 'rent' for the use o f his site. seasonal food shortages. A few American wsers", he is presumably referring to This problem, Fraenkel confesses, "see Dempster multi-blade wind pumps had pie who are 'naturals' like himself, to be one of the most serious constrain already been installed successfully to bereas many dowsers whd have had to rn from scratch would say that it is like pump river water along irrigation channels to the expansion o f the programme." to vegetable plots and fruit trees. But the The Ethiopian Government's attempt ing a bicycle - everyone can do it Dempster machines' main disadvantage at land reform have not, it seems, been ce they've got the knack. was their cost: 2000 Ethiopian Dollars, enforced in such remote areas as the 01 .eftwich's book is o f necessity brief; it (about $US 1000) each. So Ted Pollock Mission Station.. Until they are, and un l o t as practical as it could be. It covers and the Reverend Robert Swart o f the the introduction of a co-operative or* i theoretical and historical aspects of Mission staff decided to build their own collective system o f ownership o f land, wsing quite interestingly. windpumps, drawing their inspiration property and natural resources, it seem (fortunately it's little help in learning to from the sail-type wind machines used clear that well-meaning attempts to sol! it. extensively for irrigation in Crete. They the desperate food problems of Third r.C. Lethbridge's book is altogether in finished their first Cretan mill i n June World regions are fated to have, at best Hfferent class. As always with Leth1974, and new ones haye been produced limited success. More than that, such dge, it isoriginal in its approach and is at a rate o f about one a month since then. attempts run the risk o f accentuating solutely undogmatic. He always made Fraenkel describes, in meticulous detail, prevailing inequalities by increasing the mint o f saying that he only presented the mode o f construction, the design wealth-earning ability o f the already we I personal opinion on his discoveries, considerations and how the mills perform d did not mind in the least if they were off, and leaving the underprivilegei' in practice. srpreted differently. The present book, without any means of bettering th Locals wishing to have a mill to irrigate spared from Lethbridge's notes after The lesson o f Fraenkel's book is that their land pay the mission $Eth 5 a year death i n 1971, is about the 'higher Intermediate Technology, on i t s own, i; planes' o f existence, about time and about for 20 years. A sum which apparently is often just another 'technical fix' enough to deter the non-serious farmer, space. It also describes how the dowsing an attempt to engineer a solution t ulum can be used to investigate these but which is nominal in relation to the problems whose roots lie far deeper tha . It is much more than a book on $700-$800 finished cost of each machine. technology, in the distribution o f wsing: it is the conclusion o f many They are given a complete kit o f parts, a nation's wealth and power. irs work on E.S.P., the Occult, Dr E.F. Schumacher and his staff at t f including all necessary tools. The Mission shaeology and Physics. Though too Intermediate Technology Development also helps with the work o f installation. nplex for the beginner, all Lethbridge's Group are fond of telling us all that So far, so good. ire -. - worth - .- reading. .. "small is beautiful": it's about time they A t this point politics raises i t s ugly made itclear whether they are talking e (eft the most practical tilHast. head. Ownership of river-bank tanais not capitalism ,

Mag IC in the barden The Findhorn Garden, Findhorn Community. Turnstone & Wildwood. 192pp. Â£2.95 This is the story o f a 'New Age' community 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 o f Plants, (Undercurrents6). I t has gained significance not merely by being an experimental organic gardening community, but from the founders' *aims of being in touch with the spirits af the plant world under whose guidance and with whose co-overation an inhosoitable piece of land is said to have prodigious fruit and vegetables. This is a pictorial account and a personal record by the five main . members of the community, 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 theintellectual appetite, but it will leave you wondering at all those unanswered

with spiritsof the plant kingdom who insisted, as a precondition for cooperation, 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, unnecessary 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 o f this experiment,

Housing: An Anarchist A, ach, Colin Ward. Freedom Press. 1 8 ' ~pp. Â£1.25

There's one sentence in this collection o f 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 by professionals, 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 any photographic model. What gets left out is people. Colin Ward has been . fi-ng for thirty years to let them back in and t h i s book chronicles the struggle. Twofundamental principles have kept hidgoing through all the disillusionment of *post-war years: the creative power andthe initiative that is latent in every human being, ready to be unlocked if only the means are provided, and the sense.that there is no fundamental conflict between 'them' and 'us', we are all in the same game of getting a decent place to live. T o my mind the most fascinating tale is that o f the plotlands of Laindon and Pitsea in South Essex. In one o f those questions. Some will find this book and arbitrary twists o f fate a group of farmers its subject simply objectionable, some took advantage o t the coming of the railwill find it mildly interesting, hopefully some may be able to put these ideas to way in the 1880s to divest themselves of the sandy and gravelly land by getting some practical effect. Or maybe, as the East Londoners drunk and selling them rationaliser inside me says, this is just plots. a 'once and for all' story fitting a pattern As usual when land i s parcelled in this all too common in 'New Age' themes. way ownership receded into the mists of The central activity o f Findhorn has to a large extent moved away from the time and squatters as well as owners moved out in a steady stream to create garden toward an organisation propagatEngland's own shanty town. Initially ing ideas. The community has acquired without roads, drainage or services, but a nearby hotel and is creating by 1945 a fully functioning community a 'university'. For me, though, the chief of 25,000 people. After the war the are. interest i s in the original community and was designated a New Town. Now the in any further such experiments: one houses built up over many years by the isolated example does not offermuch people that lived in them can sell for dope of salvation. The tact is that colossal more than those lovingly built to modern plants were grown in sand on a bleak and standards by Basildon Corporation! windswept tract of land, and it is claimed of >the. s<rfM>uBt s@etter W $ & & e & d * --<thatthe experiment inwlved-<a-pp~Ãˆttw :L ="s

another pretondition for su to have been years o f spiritua make contact possible, added to whfctf-%*Â the community did a great deal in termi2"', of composting and other conventiona~~~:~* oractices to h e l the ~ earden alone. It db7.z leaves me, and most readers of the I fancy, with a feeling of "Yes, very nfce. but what prospects does it offer?" And the answer seems to be, none for a long 'Â time, at least in the absence of widesp~adabilities of the kind the communards claim to have. Maybe those o f us interested or hopeful in 'New Age' ideas 2 . should accept there will be no other practical offerings in our lifetimes and&%back to our theoretical speculations. % Only nobody ever changed the world that? MY Francis Broekfr

W&KC

(Colin -ward, Undercurrents lo),but people know how recently the same thing was happening in t h i s country? message is that it can happen here again if we want it enough.

this is not just a book for anarchists d housing professionals, (though they,th need it!), but a tonic for all cynic&' *-'ban dwellers worn down by the =emingly inevitable greyness o f our cities. A reverie o f what might be, attdca reminder that.qnJy' we,can * . - -- - *

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&^ ;*< ;:

a -

Undercurrents '

What's On

-1

Don't forget to go to COMTEK,which will held in Bath again, same place as last year, Valcot Street,August 14-21. Stalls, sideshows, oat-trips, music and even AT, so take yourself blus camping gear and make your way to Ib igger and better COMTEK! IS ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY AN ANSWER? is a holiday conference ('/,conerence, '/, work, '/,leisure) from August 21-28 vhlch is organised by the Future Studies Centre s a follow-up in depth to the 'INDUSTRY, ME COMMUNITY AND ALTERNATIVE FECHNOLOGY*conference held in Bradford ist November. This one "will deal with the V* million unemployed whose creative and nventive talents are often ignored", and will ake place at Court House; St. Davids, Dyfed laces are limited,at Â£10all inclusive, and amilies are welcome. Camping facilities are Iso available, and you can go to individual essions. Book soon from F.S.C., 15 Kelso load, Leeds, LS2 9PR. Tel. Leeds (0532) 159365. ENERCTE EOLIENNE ET HABITAT, and CNERGIE SOLAIRE ET HABITAT are two heoretical and practical courses. The course on rind will run from August 1-14, the one on olar energy from August 15-29. They are to re held at a site about 45 km east of Clermont :errand. For full details write to: Centre SYNTHESES, 64 Rue Taitbout, 75009 Paris. relephone 526 15 49. THE INAUGURAL MEETING of the ZOMMON OWNERSHIP ASSOCIATION will ake place on Saturday afternoon, September 18, at the Friends House, London., Everyone is welcome, and if you want to get more details, mite to: The Convener, Common Ownership association, Scott Bider Company Ltd, ~gllaston,Wellingborough, Northants. GROWING FOR SURVIVAL is the title of 15-day cowse at Cowley Wood Conservation kntre in Devon. Garden owners, allotment IC

health and natural medicine be maintained in holders and prospective small-holders should Learnington Spa. Contact V i m e Brown, Th benefit from the practical tuition given on L e a m i i n Spa Good Earth Society, successful organic gro ' and ecologically 108 Beauchamp Avenue, Leamington Spa, sound systems of h o a t u r e . The entre s Warwicks. Tel: 0926 22388. exnerience with small livestock. house cows. MEIGAN CRAFT FAYRE begins August 7, goats, bees and fish will be aired, and proat Jollity Farm (sic), Crymych. Pemln, Dyfed fessional outside tuition will be available. Write There will be little or no electric music, but to John Butter, Cowley Wood Conservation musicians willing to play round camp files or in Centre, Pairacornbe, North Devon small performance areas are welcome. Kites, THE WORLD FOOD SITUATION - its inflacbles, windmills, domes, dancers, poets, relevance to us and the Third World, is the clowns and inventors welcome. Craft people subiftct of - a - one-dav event on Sentember 25. come and sell your.wares, and demonstrate It will take place a t ~adhurst, and speakers include Dr. Lambert Mount, fanners Ã£m your art - if possible, and bring a cake for the Jim and Pauline Anderson, and Michael rfawke ZS- kids' party. More details from Dave Henchel, of Christian Aid There will be films, an exhibt#~ Tan-y-Bryn, Uan-Goedmore, Nr. Cardigan, tion, vegetarian wholefood for sale and more. - + Â ¥ ~ Dyfed. 43rd CLEAN AIR CONFERENCE. October Booking forms from Mrs Robson, Cheriton, 11-15 in Edinburgh. Write to the National The Glade, Mayf~ld(TeL 3354), Sussex. Society fordean Air, 136 North Street, Also on September 25, FOE are organising Brighton, for a conferencebrochure. a national FOOD DAY, supported by Oxfam, WORKERS CONTROL IN ACTION is the Christian Aid, and the British Council of provisional title of a conference to be held in Churches. It is to coincide with Harvest W. London on October 16 by SERA and the Festival, and the idea is to bring together a wide London Workers' Control Co-ordinating Comrange of local groups concerned in some way mittee. This will feature the Lucas Stewards about food - from those who purport to help Roadshow, Audrey Wise, Bill Jones, Dave the poor at home and overseas, to those who Flliott and others. Further info from Tony worrv about the environmental imolications of ~ G r s o of n SERA, 312 Devonshire Road, presentfood nolicies and habits. FOE hope that London SE23. people will form action committees in each WORK-LEISURE-AND THE CITY is a joint area which will organise the Food Day in their weekend school organised by the WEA own localitv. Possible schemes include turning Environmehtal studies Group and the derelict land into allotments, garden-sharing, University of London Extra-Mural Dent.to be food co-ops, recycling food waste or perhaps held at ~ i a wHatch, Sussex. ~ovember12-14; a Food Fair, or Food Conference. For more Places are limited, so if you want to enrol, details, contact FOE at 9 Poland Street, write for details to Janet Catchpole, WEA London W1V 3DG, 01-437 6121. Environmental Studies Group, 5 Chapel P ~ K. LEAMINGTON SPA HEALTH FESTIVAL is Road, Addlestone, Surrey. to be held in the Pump Room Gardens, oh There will be an ALTERNATIVE September 4-5, and will be run by locals. The SOCIALISM CONFERENCE/EVENT/ festival intends to show that health depends on HAPPENING, from August 21-29 at Laurieeverything in ow lives - ow work, food, deep, Hall, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire. It etc, and will covet cooking, natural c h i l d b i i follow the Alternative Socialism Potlitch il and relaxation After the festival (and natural London August 13-15. Full details/newslet food banquet!) it is proposed that a central etc. to Laurieston Hall; send SAE. information centre concerning community

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"'bureaucracies,Radical Technology will be 6 eye-opener. It many futurists, ecologists and philosophers have been saying: Iternative. Radical Technology offers a fresh way to think row. Nothing could be more useful." Alvin Toffk@%fe "

RADICAL dical Technology is now available from od bookshops. It's published i n the

tions, Autonomy and Community. by Godfrey Boyle and Peter

Wpp, A4 illustrated, index. H'irdback

Radical Technology is a large-format, tensivelv illustrated collection o f

original articles concerning the reorganisatipn of technology along more humane, rational and ecologically sound lines. The many facets o f such a reorganisation are reflected i n the wide variety of contributions to the book. They cover both the 'hardware' - ttie machines and technical methods themselves - and the 'software' -- [he social and political structures, the way people relate to each other and to their environment, and how they feel about it .ill. 1 he .irticles in the book range from detailed 'recipes' through general ticcounti of alternative technical methods, to critiques of current practices, and general proposals for reorganisations. tach author has been encouraged to follow her or his own personal approach, sometimes descriptive, sometimes analytic, sometimes technical, sometimes political. The contributors are all authorities i n their fields.

Practical Methane The Practical Building o f Methane Power Plants by L John Fry is now generally acknowledged to be the lest book on small-scale methane generation yet written. I"o give readers an idea o f the scope o f the book's :overage, here is list o f chapter headings:

I How i t all started 2. Building a vertical drum digester 3. Top loader digester 4. First Full-scale iigester 5. Working solution t o scum accumulation 6. Gas Holders used 00 my farm 7. Digester types and scum removal 8. Biology o f digestion 9. Raw materials 10. Digester design 11. Digester operatiof 12. Economics o f digestion 13. Gas and Gas usage 14. Gludge and sludge use 15. Safety Precautions 16. Questions and answers 17. Digesters today and tomorrow. 18. Glossary of terms,bibliography and references, and postscript. k r o m now on, The Practical Building o f Methane Power Plants will be available from Undercurrents at Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ3.3 including postage. [sedond class/surface mail). Cheques or postal order' ihould be sent to: Undercurrents Books, 11 Shadwell, Uley, Dursley, Gloucestershire, England.

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