The Ulro Chronicle and Bugle
Author: Bob Forrest et al.
Date: 2015-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

The Origins of The Ulro Chronicle and Bugle

Bob Forrest

The name “Ulro Chronicle and Bugle” arose out of a series of letters to and from self-styled “Mystical Anarchist” and “Psychic Revolutionary” Tony Roberts, author of Atlantean Traditions in Ancient Britain (1974; 1977) and Sowers of Thunder (1978).  He also published, through his own Zodiac House Publications, Glastonbury – Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem (1976; 1977), a collection of essays by, amongst others, John Michell, Nigel Pennick, Mary Caine and Donald Cyr.  The opening essay, “Glastonbury – Ancient Avalon” was by Tony himself.

A little background information is in order at this point.  In the 1970s I had developed a reputation as “the Doubting Thomas of Ley Hunting”, having published various articles in the likes of The Ley Hunter (TLH), Journal of Geomancy, Fortean Times (FT) and Stonehenge Viewpoint (SV), claiming that most if not all ley lines were chance alignments.  I had also done some sceptical analysis of some of the “sacred geometry” supposedly delineated by ancient sites.  Much of this criticism was, of course, directed at the work of John Michell, notably his View over Atlantis (1969; 1972), City of Revelation (1972) and The Old Stones of Land’s End (1974).  Despite this, John and I became good friends, and I remember once being a dinner guest at his house in Powis Gardens, when he cheerfully introduced me to his other guests as the only one of his readers who didn’t believe a word of what he wrote!  Tony Roberts, though, was not so accommodating.  To him, John was a hero, and I was little more than a miserable worm.

Unfortunately the first letter of the series – a letter from me to him, probably in response to a letter of his published in TLH 74, in which he dubbed ley statisticians as “scientific fifth columnists” and “poetic illiterates” – has not survived the ravages of time.  But Tony’s response to it has.  Dated 21st February 1977 it opens thus:

“Thank you for your letter – it only confirms what I already suspected about your whole blinkered approach to the subject of leys and geomancy.  You appear to function intellectually like a rigid, depersonalized robot; you respond to a limited social programming that tells you ‘proof’ of anything is the only criterion to judge reality by.  Tell that to a Zen Master and he would indeed pity you!  In fact tell that to anyone who has rejected the ludicrous straitjacket of ‘rationality’ and they might well consider you to be a most miniscule human personality indeed!  Your ‘total science’ is your downfall.  It only accepts a framework of ruthlessly ‘empirical evidence’ that fits neatly into a pre-conceived superstructure that only really dates back to those arch-enemies of humanity, Newton and Darwin.”

At least I was in good company, then!  A little later in the same letter he wrote:

“You forget that leys do not (like yourself) exist in lonely isolation.  They are only a small, newly rediscovered part of the geomantic pattern and are surrounded by the richly glowing auras of 20,000 years of occult history and magic.  I am sure you dismiss folktale, myth and magic as ‘unquantifiable imponderables’ or something equally dogmatic and arrogant, but their pedigree of helpful enhancement for the developing human psychic personality is longer and more inspiring than two or three centuries of what Blake called the ‘Hell of Ulro’ i.e. scientific rationalism.”

This was the first mention of Blake’s Ulro.  Naturally I had great fun responding to all this (in a letter dated 26th Feb 1977), though it was probably not the best of ideas to question Tony’s mental equilibrium and to class him with a long list of cranks, nor to sign off my letter with “Yours from the depths of the Hell of Ulro”, for it prompted this in his reply of 9th March 1977:

“Rational Empiricism, what you might call factual evidence, without Poetry and Imagination, is a foully verminous disease.  Its practitioners are human vermin who crawl like bubonic rats across the bleeding surface of the Living Earth.  What does it feel like crawling down in the shit of Ulro, Mr Forrest?  You seem to glory in being there and that also confirms me in my belief (with your own supplied evidence) that you are really an expendable, sub-human zombie.”

Ulro was now firmly on the map, then, and my next letter to him (10th March 1977) was addressed from “Ulro House” (in mimicry, it should be noted, of Tony’s house in Fulham, which was known as “Zodiac House”.) That letter concluded, “Incidentally, I am toying with the idea of starting a magazine, The Ulro Chronicle & Bugle, and, in addition, I signed the letter “Ulroistically yours.”

Tony’s response to this (dated 23rd March 1977) opened with surprising – if short lived – warmth:

“I must say it is a pleasure to cross swords (or should I say psychic daggers) with such a resilient adversary!  You ride the blows of my pen like some metallic pugilist, punch drunk but always lurching back for more; your equanimity is certainly to be commended.  But not, alas, your pathetically ‘rational’ arguments.”

Pleasantries over, it was back to work as usual:

“Dealing with you, Mr Forrest, is even better than watching the antics of Tom and Jerry.  Of course I still would not cross the road (or old straight track) to spit on your grave, but I am sure you understand that.”

It was in this letter, too, that Tony awarded me the title “P.R. man for Ulro”.  He also wrote in a PS: “When you start your ‘ULRO BUGLE’ perhaps I can have a permanent column as ‘angel’s advocate’?  Reversed polarity fifth-column.”

In my next letter (28th March 1977) I told Tony that, “if I ever really do organise The Ulro Chronicle & Bugle in any form, I would be delighted if you would do a reverse polarity column.” Unfortunately, The Ulro Chronicle & Bugle never got beyond the stage of three or four stencilled broadsheets privately circulated amongst a few friends, the first of which, “Ulro Papers No. 1”, is now, alas, lost.  It was apparently entitled “Why I do not believe the Great Pyramid to be a very mystical edifice”, and probably involved my spoof use of the Great Pyramid to indicate the ‘sacred’ location of Merton Sewage Works in Oxfordshire, which spoof had already featured (actually to make quite a serious point) in my article “That Damned Pyramid” in FT 18 in October 1976.  Certainly I sent a copy of Ulro Papers No. 1 to Tony, for his “disgust and vilification”, with my letter of 28th March 1977, and indeed it was duly dismissed by him in his letter of 10th May 1977 as “the usual banal waffle based on discredited, orthodox and outdated sources” whose conclusions were “expectedly flippant and superficial.”

Ulro Papers No. 2, though, has survived in the form of “The Terrestrial Zodiac at Nowhere-in-the-Dale”, and is dated May 1977.  I’m not sure whether Tony ever saw this (he was a firm believer in the Glastonbury Zodiac) or subsequent Ulro Papers, for, following my letter of 19th May 1977, in which I asked if I could quote his comments on Ulro Papers No. 1, he angrily terminated our correspondence in a letter dated 2nd June 1977, saying, “I simply have no time for such inconsequentials as explaining my points in the language of a simpleton, for that I fear is the language you need to help your understanding.” He went on:

“You may quote freely from any of my letters (as long as there is no editing or ‘manipulation’), there is nothing in any of them I do not mean or wish other people to know.  My letters to you were polemics to a traitor, declarations of war, chastisement of a fool and as such have served their purpose well.  If you want an ‘angel’s advocate’ section in your new rag, I suggest you cobble together your favourite insults from my epistles and publish them!”

Hence the present account of the proceedings, albeit 35 years on.  Incidentally, Ulro Papers No. 3 seems to have been “The Lore of Place-Names in and around the County of Herefordshire”; Ulro Papers No. 4, Michael Behrend’s “Winnie the Pooh as an embodiment of the Canon”; and Ulro Papers No. 5, the (projected but never ‘issued’ – till now) contribution by David Randell, “The Bury Earth Zodiac” (for the reading of which readers need to be aware that, at the time of its writing, I lived in the Bury – Edenfield – Ramsbottom area of Lancashire.) “The Reviews Page” was actually a set of reviews of some of the stranger earth mysteries related books I had come across – they are all real books that are so strange that they don’t even need spoofing!  Why I didn’t include Conor MacDari’s Irish Wisdom Preserved in Bible and Pyramids (1923), I don’t know – but I should have done!

But that was not quite the end of the story.  On 26th July 1979 I attended the launch of John Michell’s new book Simulacra.  Also present was Tony Roberts.  I introduced myself and, much to the amazement of his wife Jan, we began to chat good-naturedly over such strange books as Vaughn M. Greene’s Astronauts of Ancient Japan (1978) and Comyns Beaumont’s even stranger book The Riddle of Prehistoric Britain (1946) – the latter being mentioned in “The Reviews Page”.  We parted on good terms, and that, I thought, was that.  But no …

On 21st September 1986 I wrote a brief note to Jan Roberts to order a copy of her recently published booklet, Mothers Beware Mothers.  (By now she and Tony were living near Glastonbury, and issuing Zodiac House publications from there, Jan’s booklet being one of a series.) My order elicited not only a copy of the booklet, but also an 8 page hand-written letter from Tony, expressing his fury that I had used – or rather, misused – the word “geomyth” in what he called a “psychically constipated” and “bloody boring” article I had written, as part of my Velikovsky series, in SV 72.  Tony claimed to have invented the word himself in 1975, giving it “geomantic / spiritual connotations” (as per his article in TLH 88), and so my usurping and misuse of it as a mere scientific term for a story to explain particular configurations of the landscape was “morally dishonest”.  I had made it clear that my usage followed that of Dorothy Vitaliano’s book about geology and folklore, Legends of the Earth, but unfortunately Tony had never heard of this book, plus I had inadvertently omitted its date of publication.  Consequently, as Tony put it: “For all I know the woman has ripped me off, unless, of course, the tome was published in 1860 or something.” As it happened, Vitaliano’s book was published by Indiana University Press in 1973, two years before Tony’s coining of his word, though actually she had defined geomythology as the geologic application of euhemerism rather earlier, in 1968, in Journal of the Folklore Institute (Indiana University), vol. 5, pp.  5–30.  Of course, I took great delight in pointing this out to Tony (in a letter dated 3rd October 1986), adding:

“As for calling me a morally dishonest researcher before you even knew the date of Vitaliano’s usage, well, I could go on, but I’ll spare your blushes & await your apology.”

No apology ever came, and I never heard from him again.  Not that I ever seriously held it against him.  Having met him in 1979, and seen his affable side, I couldn’t really believe this latest corrosive outburst over “geomythics”, to the point where I expressed the opinion, in my letter, that he was “just an old softie, really.” In fact, I fully intended to look him up on a trip I had planned for going to Glastonbury the following summer.  Unfortunately, that trip never happened, and, sad to say, Tony died of a heart attack on Glastonbury Tor in 1990, at the age of only 50.

Those whom the gods love die young, they say, and it wasn’t long before a mythology developed around his death amongst our more mystical brethren.  There were apparently some who speculated that Tony hadn’t really died so much as had been spirited away by the fairies from within the giant fairy mound of Glastonbury Tor – spiritually rescued from this imperfect world, as it were*.  If that is the case, and he is ‘out there’ somewhere, maybe the publication of this on the web will prompt him to get in touch again.

* The following are two theories quoted from
http://thehobgoblin.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/anthony-roberts.html
This blog seems to be no longer accessible (December 2013).

“It is said that he died of a heart attack on midsummer’s day upon Glastonbury Tor, which is, of course, a fairy hill.  Chillingly it is said that at the time he was preparing a magical working to contact the spirit of Robert Kirk, author of Secret Commonwealth of Elves and Fairies.  Kirk too died on a fairy hill but it was thought his corpse was a changeling and that he had been carried away to the land of fairy that he had so compellingly described.  When Kirk’s spirit showed itself his family, in shock, failed to act in the prescribed manner and Kirk became destined to act as a guide between our world and the land of fairy.”

And again:

“Anthony Roberts resides, from time to time, within the invisible dimension of Glastonbury Tor – planetary Heart Chakra and Foundation Stone of the Gaian New Jerusalem.  On the 9th of February, 1990 – at the time of the total eclipse of the Leo full moon – knots of Fate were severely cut.  The global Dance of Life needs mastery of many curious steps: To fulfil his own curious and endlessly particular Destiny, Anthony suddenly and severely cut his spirit from his Body.  Certain ignorant folk would say that he “died” on the Tor.  Those of us who love Tony know better.  May his word be a Lantern in the Night, illuminating the darkest places of this earth with Hope and the Laughter of the Stars.  May the Living Waters of his Spirit forever nurture the Geomythic Seed of Avalon!”

The Terrestrial Zodiac at Nowhere-in-the-Dale

Bob Forrest

The first figure to be discovered was a gigantic representation of two Flowerpot-Men (Gemini?), striding across the landscape towards what could be the point of midwinter sun-rise.  Of course, they might just be heading for the George and Dragon, a pub which lies just across the road.  (Dragon Pubs are frequently associated with terrestrial zodiacs: in fact, the author first stumbled upon the zodiac after coming out of this very establishment.)  Can it be simply coincidence that the Flowerpot-Men’s gaze passes directly through the front door of the pub, and thence out through the Gents towards the point of midwinter sun-rise?

The second figure to be discovered was at first thought to be that of a crude Scorpio-type figure, but closer inspection proved it to be a Suet Pudding wearing a pointed hat and roller skates.  Many have objected that the traditional zodiac does not contain a suet pudding, but of course, it has to be remarked that our zodiac is a relatively recent affair in the annals of history, and some researchers have claimed that in fact the pre-Atlantean Zodiacal Representations were very different from our own.

The third zodiacal figure, carved out of the landscape by a pre-1977 neo-motorway, the Mugwump-in-the-Marsh by-pass, and a curved section of the Bigglesdyke Canal, is that of a Dog, with its rear near-side leg raised, as if in some ritual gesture.  The Dog wears a monocle (sign of the disc?), and has three front legs, one of which sports a wellington boot.

The fourth zodiacal sign is a sort of oval shape, with three spikes sticking out of either side.  Certain theorists have been tempted to see in this figure a hark-back to some prehistoric extraterrestrial visitation.  Certainly the resemblance to the traditional discoid UFO shape, with the spikes representing a luminous nature, is striking.  But then again, other theorists have put forward a theory of some kind of link with Insect Worship.  Indeed, my young daughter, upon first seeing a sketch of this figure, remarked that it looked a lot like something she trod on in the garden the other day.

The fifth figure could be an elephant, or perhaps a fox carrying a sausage.  At any rate, this figure is being pursued by figure number six, the Hunter, who in fact appears (for reasons which I will not dwell upon) to be an hermaphrodite.  He/she carries a ritual mace-like object, which my daughter says is a frying pan.  (I asked her why she thought it was a frying pan, and she said it was because the Policeman was going to eat the fish (?) for his dinner.)

Figure number seven is a pair of army boots.  Again, I would remind the reader that our zodiac is not the only interpretation of the zodiacal star patterns, and it may well be that these boots symbolise both the daily journey of the stars about the pole, as well as the yearly march of the seasons.  Why one of the boots has a handle on it is a mystery.

Figure number eight is a cross, surrounded by a circle, of which only part remains.  The cross, of course, is a symbol of pre-Christian origin, and its association with the surrounding circle (or disc?) is highly evocative.  My daughter says it looks like a hot-cross-bun, and her friend up the road says it looks like a bird’s-eye-view of a sticking plaster on a bald man’s head.

The ninth figure is obviously a rabbit on stilts, reminding one very much of the Hare-in-the-Moon, though of course the hare is not a rabbit, and the one in the moon doesn’t have stilts.  It is a curious fact that the rabbit appears to have a banana balanced on his head.  Either that, or the rabbit has three ears (akin to the third eye in humans?).  Or again, perhaps the banana or third ear is a rocket ship, landing behind the rabbit, as it were.  Really a most interesting zodiacal figure.

The final figure, the tenth, is a sort of hunch-backed sparrow, with a snake or serpent in its beak.  Why the sparrow is wearing water-skis is not at all clear, nor is the reason for the serpent or snake wearing what looks like a collar and tie.

Of course, our zodiac has twelve signs, whereas this one has only ten signs.  I have no explanation to offer for this apart from the curious possibility suggested by a friend of mine that perhaps it was an ancient attempt to metricate the zodiac.

Robert Forrest.  May 1977.

Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish;
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A tower’d citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon’t, that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air; thou hast seen these signs;
They are black vesper’s pageants.

Antony and Cleopatra.  Act IV, Scene 12.

From Chambers’ “The Book of Days” (1864).

On page 688 of volume 2 of this fascinating work there is an amusing tale of an inscribed stone monument, fairly small, and pictured here.  One learned authority argued that it represented nothing less than a monument dedicated to Baal.  He gave proofs that the hieroglyphs were to be transcribed thus: “Beli Divose”, or, “To Belus, god of fire”.  The learned argument was deflated, however, when it was realised that the inscription had been carved by some passer by, who had paused to sit and rest on the stone.  The inscription, therefore, should properly be read upside down from the illustration, thus giving “E Conid 1731”.

In order to support the e-reader version, where a back-button is not always available, it has been necessary to alter the endnotes slightly. – MB, January 2015.

The Lore of Place Names in and around the County of Herefordshire

Bob Forrest

“What’s in a Name?” Romeo & Juliet II:ii.

Geomancy.  Many place names are, of course, particularly relevant to the Ley system and to geomancy in general.  Here, as in the rest of this essay, I list examples according to the number of the relevant 1:50,000 O/S sheet of the area.  Thus on sheet 148 we have : Lea Farm (233617); The Ley (392512); Red Lay (349455); Coldharbour (458559).  On sheet 149: The Lea (538622) and Lea Green (674640).  Interestingly, on this same sheet, we have Laysters Pole (555636) – possibly a hark back to the ancient ley-line survey rod.  Note also: sheet 149, Dodmarsh (575434); sheet 150, Cow Leigh Gate Farm (756479), Ley Farm (889392) and Tiddesley Wood (930455).

Also of interest to the Ley hunter are the following:

Sheet 148: Garnstone House (398500) and Garnstone [note 1] Wood (409492); Little Brampton [note 2] (204614); Devereux [note 3] Wootton (385485); Bunn’s [note 4] Lane(388477); Fforest Colwyn (105541) and Bury [note 5] Farm (488627); Warden [note 6] (305646); Gravesend [note 7] (107673); White Anthony Farm [note 8] (259731); St. Michael’s [note 9] Farm (186698); and Richard’s Castle [note 10] (495695).

On sheet 149: The Fulhams [note 11] (627655); Nicholson [note 12] (584581); Burgess Farm [note 13] (650523); Pixley [note 14] (661388); Robinscroft [note 15] (694363); St. Devereux [note 16] (439314); Turnastone [note 17] (357363).

Sheet 150: Robertsend [note 18] (836342) and Blakes Hill [note 19] (040392).

Sheet 161: Wern Watkin [note 20] (216153).

Folklore and Mythology.  Equally of interest are clear folk-lore references contained in place names.  Thus, on sheet 148, we have Great Hagley (= Hag-Ley) (341768); on sheet 149, we have Elvastone (= Elves-stone) (529281), Banses Wood (= Banshees Wood) (417330), and Shucknall (Shuck = Black Dog type phantom) (588427).

Arthurian Lore is naturally represented: Arthur’s Stone (315430) and the town of Knill [note 21] (292607) both appear on sheet 148, for example.  And it is good to see Robin Hood lore put in a few appearances, thus:

Sheet 148: Friar’s Grove (483518); (King?) Richard’s Castle (495695).

Sheet 149: Robinscroft (694363).

Sheet 150: Tuck Mill Farm (081381); Bow Farm (877363); Bowmeadow Farm (068355); Nottingham Hill (985282).

Sheet 151: Robin Wood (526375); Loxley (252528) (Note also -ley ending).

Sheet 161: Tuck Mill (456392); Merry Hill (461371) and Coed Robin (290361).

Other mythological characters:

Sheet 149: Cinderella in Cinders Hill (590652) and Noddy in Poll Noddy (584435).  There is also Aladdin, who has become The Laddin (665355); Great Bilbo (360292), from Tolkien; and the Egyptian god Amun, who appears in Ammons Hill (702527).

Sheet 150: Huckleberry Finn in Hucks Farm (767580); Puck in Puckrup village (885365).

Sheet 161: Cupid in Cupids Hill (410254).

But perhaps the item of greatest interest, and certainly the most curious, is the geomantic chess game, keyed into the place-name landscape:

Sheet 148: Kingsland(445619) ; Knighton (285725); Bishopston (420435) and Painscastle (= Pawns-castle?) (168462).

Sheet 149: The Castle (456282); Sheet 150: Queenhill (855365).

But not only this.  Something far more intriguing than a simple chess game was frozen into the landscape – something associated with Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories, and, in particular, the Giant Chess Game Theme contained therein [note 22].

Thus, on sheet 148: Duchess Walk [note 23] (480757); New Invention [note 24] (293767); then, considered as a group, Old Shop (396667), Boatside Farm (225432), Sheepcote Farm (256467) & Sheepwalk (304599) [note 25]; The Riddle [note 26] (472629); Offa’s Dyke [note 27].

On sheet 149: Oyster Hill [note 28] (723416).

On sheet 150: Frog Pool [note 29] (803656), Rabbit Wood [note 30] (959579) and Pepper Hill [note 31] (736342).

Moreover, consider the curious fact that Lewis Carroll’s real surname was Dodgson – a name of geomantic undertones!

Metrology.  The names of some of the traditional weights and measures of these Islands of ours figure prominently in the place names of the region.  Thus:

Sheet 148: Pole Wood (430468); Pound Farm (254482); Ton Farm (251454); Inchmore (495659); Kings Acre (475415).

Sheet 149: Instone (= Inch-stone?) (650556); Layster’s Pole (555636); Stone Farm (515557); Flaggoner’s Green (645543); Kilpeck (445304); Paunceford Court (= Pounceford Court?) (674406); Bromyard 655545).

Sheet 150: Penny hill (752615); Pound Bank (796456); Pole Elm (837498).

Also of interest: on sheet 149, Weymans Wood (725620) – could be Weigh-mans Wood; and on sheet 148 we have Cabal (351588) – a possible variant on Cabala – and Canon Bridge (435411), which is self explanatory.

Robert Forrest.  May 1977.

Notes.

[note 1]  Garnstone Press, 59, Brompton Rd, London – publishers of geomantic stuff.

[note 2]  See note 1.

[note 3]  Paul Devereux, editor of Ley Hunter at time of writing.

[note 4]  Ivan Bunn, editor of Lantern, author of “Black Bogs & Water” in Fortean Times 17.

[note 5]  The present author, & his home town of Bury.

[note 6]  Ian Worden, author of (amongst other things) “The Round Church of Orphir, Orkney” (IGR Papers No. 6).

[note 7]  Tom Graves, author of “Dowsing” (Turnstone).

[note 8]  Anthony Roberts, and his wife, run Zodiac House, in Fulham.

[note 9]  Michael Behrend, author of “Landscape Geometry in S.  Britain”, IGR Papers 1.

[note 10]  Richard Elen (?), author of “Old Magic, New Magic”, in Ley Hunter 74.  There is an Elan village on sheet 147 at 935651.

[note 11]  Zodiac House (note 8) is in Fulham.

[note 12]  John Nicholson, editor of Arcana.

[note 13]  M. W. Burgess, author of “Objections & Obscurities” in Ley Hunter 65.

[note 14]  Olive Pixley (note -ley ending), one of John Michell’s sources in View Over Atlantis.

[note 15]  Don Robins, author of Quartz Enigmas in Ley Hunter 75.

[note 16]  Paul Devereux (note 3) again.

[note 17]  Turnstone Press, with an extra a.

[note 18]  Anthony Roberts (note 8) again.

[note 19]  William Blake, favourite poet amongst many ley hunters & geomancers.

[note 20]  Alfred Watkins, author of The Old Straight Track, discoverer of leys.

[note 21]  Sir Ian Stuart-Knill, in 1972, and after 63 years of research, published his booklet “The Pedigree of Arthur”: Royal Family descended from Arthur.

[note 22]  TTLG Ch. 2: “It’s a great game of chess that’s being played – all over the world – if this is the world at all, you know.  Oh, what fun it is!”

[note 23]  AIW Ch. 4, Duchess.

[note 24]  TTLG Ch. 8.  “It’s my own invention”.

[note 25]  TTLG.  Ch. 5.  Wool and Water.

[note 26]  AIW Ch. 7.  Mad Tea-Party: Why is a Raven like a writing Desk?

[note 27]  AIW.  Ch. 8.  “Offa with his head!”

[note 28]  TTLG.  Ch. 4.  Walrus & Carpenter Poem.

[note 29]  AIW Ch. 4, Frog-Footman.

[note 30]  AIW.  Ch. l.

[note 31]  AIW Ch. 4, “Pig and Pepper”

To be published shortly: Ulro Publications are pleased to announce their forthcoming publication of “Biggles Studies the Great Pyramid, and Bertie Squares the Circle”: a popular approach to the problems of Pyramidology today.

William Stirling’s 1897 book on gematria, The Canon, was rescued from obscurity by John Michell and republished by Garnstone Press in 1974.

Winnie the Pooh as an Embodiment of the Canon

A newly discovered manuscript by William Stirling

Edited by Michael Behrend

We venture to suggest that an exposition of certain ancient mysteries was incorporated into the writings of the author generally referred to as A. A. Milne, whose works are intended to appear to the uninitiated as mere fancies for the amusement of children.

The translation of English words into their numerical values may be achieved through either of two systems, based upon the Hebrew and Greek alphabets respectively.  For various reasons the former would appear to be the more appropriate in the present case, and for the convenience of the reader is appended below [note 1].

A | B | C | D | E | F | G
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3
H | I | J | K | L | M | N
8 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50
O | P | Q | R | S | T | U
70 | 80 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 9 | 6
V | W | X | Y | Z
6 | 6 | 60 | 10 | 7

The three principal characters in these stories are Christopher Robin, 1225, Winnie the Pooh, 381, and Piglet, 137.  It appears that this Triad of symbolical persons is to be identified with the Christian Trinity, for if colel be added to each the total becomes the number of fusion, 1746 [note 2].

1225 | + 1 | | Πατηρ = | 489 |
381 | + 1 | | Πνευμα = | 576 |
137 | + 1 | | ‘Υιος = | 680 |
1743 | + 3 | = 1746 | | 1745 | + 1 = 1746

It is told moreover that Piglet was the descendant of one Trespassers Will, and this name, if the alternative spelling Wil is adopted, also equals 1746.  Now Piglet, 137, is equivalent by gematria to QBLH (qabalah) [note 3] and also, with the addition of colel, to the name A. A. Milne under which the author conceals his identity.  In such a circuitous way does the author set forth his claim to a divine inspiration behind the work.  And 137 is the side of the Holy Oblation, if the Sun’s distance be taken at 10, and is therefore equivalent to Christos, 1480, the second person of the Trinity [note 4].  Likewise Winnie the Pooh, 381, has the same number as Aiolos, who appears in the Odyssey as the god of winds, which seems to correspond to the pneuma, breath, or spirit of the Christian Trinity [note 5], the name Pooh being an onomatopœic indication of the divine afflatus.  Among his other epithets are Bear of Very Little Brain, 861, and Pooh Bear, 436.  Of these numbers the first, with a slight addition, gives 864, the number of ‘Ιερουσαλημ [note 6], while the second is the perimeter of the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse [note 7].  Christopher Robin, 1225, may be taken as equivalent to the Father of the Christian Trinity, for 1225 is the measure of a cross whose limbs are 612½ feet long [note 8], and 612 is the number of Ζευς, or Dis Pater, the father of the gods [note 9].  Again, such a cross is formed by the diagonals of a square whose area equals that of a circle of diameter 489, the number of Πατηρ, the Father.

Prominent among the other characters of the cycle are Owl or Wol, 106, and Eeyore, 295.  Now 106 is the diameter of a circle whose circumference is 333, the diagonal of the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse [note 10], and at the same time is the diagonal of a square of side 75, or one less than the number of  ’Αθηνη or Athene [note 11], the goddess of wisdom to whom the Owl was sacred [note 12].  (Kanga, 75, is evidently to be regarded as a personification of Athene.)  Owl’s dwelling in the sacred grove is called the WOLERY, 321, and is thus by gematria equivalent to ναος, the Temple [note 13]; while the two notices before the entrance may be identified with the twin pillars Boaz and Jachin on which, according to the Alexandrian philosopher Polyorchidos [note 14], Noah and his sons engraved all the knowledge of mankind lest it should perish in the Flood.  The inscriptions upon these notices are given as PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD, 2329, and PLEZ CNOKE IF AN RNSR IS NOT REQID, 1845.  Although the wording is obscure, it is plain that a mystical meaning is intended to be conveyed.  For 1845 is the circumference of a circle whose diameter is 587, which if colel be subtracted is equivalent to ‘ο θεος ’Ισαακ, the god of Isaac [note 15]; while 2329 is the circumference of a circle whose diameter is 741, the number of και πνευμα ‘αγιον, and the holy spirit [note 16].  The two inscriptions refer therefore to the knowledge revealed to mankind before and after the coming of Christ.

Again, if colel be subtracted from the number of Eeyore, the residue 294 is the number of both ’Εκκλησια, the Church [note 17], and ‘Ροδον, the Rose [note 18].  Moreover 294 would appear suited to the saturnine or melancholic role played by Eeyore in the cycle, since the same digits, read from right to left, appear in the first row of the magic square of Saturn [note 19]; and 294 is the width of two intersecting circles forming a vesica of width 98, the radius of Saturn’s orbit if the Sun’s distance be taken at 10 [note 20].

Notes

[note 1]  This is not the system used in the Editor’s Pyramid Folio contribution.

[note 2]  J. Michell, City of Revelation (Garnstone 1972), passim.

[note 3]  W. Stirling, The Canon (Garnstone 1974), p. 214.

[note 4]  Canon, p. 198.

[note 5]  Canon, p. 254.

[note 6]  Canon, p. 315.

[note 7]  Canon, p. 34.

[note 8]  Canon, p. 269.

[note 9]  Canon, pp. 106ff.

[note 10]  Canon, p. 382n.

[note 11]  Canon, p. 112.

[note 12]  R. Graves, The White Goddess (Faber 1961), p. 315.

[note 13]  Canon, p. 194.

[note 14]  This sage is not elsewhere recorded.

[note 15]  Canon, p. 131.

[note 16]  Canon, p. 123.

[note 17]  Canon, p. 268.

[note 18]  Canon, p. 49.

[note 19]  Canon, p. 268.

[note 20]  Canon, pp.  196, 175.

The Bury Earth Zodiac

David Randell

The following hypothesis is submitted as evidential to the claim that an ‘Earth Zodiac’ lies ‘hidden’ in the Bury area near the City of Manchester, England.

It is important that the reader’s attention be drawn to the fact that further field work is needed before the full extent of the Zodiac can be ascertained.  This study therefore should be seen as a preliminary exercise.

Two main fields have been concentrated on in this study, Gematria and the Analysis of Place Names.  The archaeological side to this study is being conducted by Mr Justin Time whose manuscript unfortunately was received too late for inclusion here.  However having briefly read through said manuscript I am of the opinion that its eventual publication will meet considerable success and amply illustrate the authenticity of the Zodiac claim.

Analysis of Place Names.  Here I am indebted to the work of the late Mr I. C. Ittall ‘Origins of Place Names within the British Isles’, now out of print incidentally.

Ramsbottom.  ‘… derived from a prolific sheep farming community of the Saxon period’.  ‘… evidence existing to a practice of husbandry in Neolithic times’.  (Origins of Place names within the British Isles – I. C. Ittall).

It has been suggested that the Ramsbottom area and the manner in which the husbandry naturally appeared there is the direct manifestation of the Aries vibration of the Earth Zodiac.  In fact to quote Justin Time ‘It soon becomes apparent that a Ram suddenly resolves itself from the Ramsbottom area and that its hindquarters possess remarkable clarity, I find it strange to ascertain how the inhabitants seemed aware of this intriguing coincidence!’

Edenfield.  ‘A once influential area of vineyard produce … a veritable field of Eden’ (Ibid).

BURY.  ‘Concealment’ (Ibid) I. M. Rite suggests: ‘A clever anagram which in fact was derived from the name RUBY.  This the mystical gem of Mars and the Zodiacal constellation of Aries saw extensive use in the regalia of a small body of people that paid homage to the Ram in the now Edenfield area.  (My emphasis) .

Gematria.  Here the Stirling Behrend system has been employed.

Ramsbottom – 200+1+40+300+2+70+9+9+70+40 = 741 (740) colel employed.  By Gematria 740 equals in the Greek correspondences – ‘Circle’ and Creation’.

I. M. Rite a numerologist amongst other things has come up with this interesting snippet of information:—

‘Some intriguing number correspondences seem to revolve around the present occupier of 37 Dearden Fold, Edenfield, Bury, LANCS.  The number 37 forms the basis of many significant ‘Gematric’ numbers, particulary the ‘triple’ numbers ie.  111;222;666 etc.  37 as 370 equals ‘House’ and ‘Temple’ whilst 370 is half of 740 (see above – Ramsbottom).  The occupier ‘Bob’ (74!) or ‘Rob’ (272 – the MY and numerical anagram of pi as 22/7) is a professional mathematician and one is tempted to speculate as to the coincidental or intentional basis of these parallels?  Consider also that a correspondent by the name of David Randell (also of mathematical leanings I believe) has a name value of 345 – one of the Pythagorean triangles, and that his father Dennis Randell has name value of 739 (740 – again!) and treat 345+739 = 1084 which with the colel usage gives us the famous 1080 value.  Is it a coincidence that a circle of circumference 1084 has a diameter of 345?  Perhaps the obvious fact overlooked here is that 1082 (1080) is the numerical value of ‘This is it Folks!’.

Whilst the above may be seen to illustrate the mystical nature of the Bury area and those attracted to it, Mr U. R. Rong thinks otherwise and I understand is in the process of submitting a counter theory.  I await its appearance!

Tom Foolry.   Sept.  ’77.

Bibliography.

‘Origin of Place Names within the British Isles’ by I. C. Ittall edited by I. A. Crank and ‘Mysterious Tales’ by I. M. Rite.  Both books published by M. T. Head Books Inc.

Thanks also given to the work of Justin Time and the inspiration behind this work by Mrs C. Nile.

The Reviews Page

Bob Forrest

(1) “Why Is the Bulk of the Ocean Retained in the Southern Hemi-sphere?”  J. Leith.  1885.
The answer, according to the author of this 23 page booklet, lies in the sudden increase in width of the 36th course of masonry of the Great Pyramid.  Not the clearest of booklets.  In fact, the title is the clearest bit.  But worth a thoroughly bewildering read.

(2) “The Mystery of the Early British”.  R. H. Quine.  No date.
One of the author’s basic contentions is that the stone circles of the British Isles were built as cattle pens.  Silbury Hill a British Pyramid.  Woodhenge the remains of a king’s house.  Makes a change.

(3) “The Riddle of Prehistoric Britain”.  W. Comyns Beaumont.  1946.
Did the Ancient History of the Middle East really take place in Britain?  The author of this book seems to think so, basing much of his evidence on mythology and place names.  Just goes to show what can be demonstrated with a bit of mythology and a few place names, if one really sets one’s mind to it.

(4) “The Great Law”.  Hamish F. MacHuisdean.  Glasgow 1924.
A book which shows how to square the circle and duplicate the cube using the Great Pyramid.  A real must for those with a taste for Pyramid books written in Scottish–American slang.

“That’s the most important piece of evidence we’ve heard yet,” said the King, rubbing his hands; “so now let the jury—”

“If any one of them can explain it,” said Alice (she had grown so large in the last few minutes that she wasn’t a bit afraid of interrupting him), “I’ll give him sixpence (= 2½p.  Ed.).  I don’t believe there’s an atom (quark? Ed.) of meaning in it.”

The jury all wrote down on their slates, “She doesn’t believe there’s an atom of meaning in it,” but none of them attempted to explain the paper.

“If there’s no meaning in it,” said the King, “that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any.  And yet I don’t know,” he went on, spreading out the verses on his knee, and looking at them with one eye; ” I seem to see some meaning in them after all.”

Table of Contents

- Origins (written 2012)

- The Terrestrial Zodiac at Nowhere-in-the-Dale

- Place Names in and around Herefordshire

- Winnie the Pooh as an Embodiment of the Canon

- The Bury Earth Zodiac

- The Reviews Page