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I SAW THIS ON AN OTHER SITE AND FOUND IT PRETTY INTERESTING...
Ancestral Paths
All over the world, mysterious roads and paths run in perfectly
straight
lines--sometimes plowing through difficult terrain when easier land
lies just
to one side, or going up and over mesas and mountains instead of
around them.
What is their purpose, and why were they constructed with such utter
disregard
for the practicalities of road-building?
An Englishman named Alfred Watkins, who believed he had discovered
straight-line paths dotting the English landscape and connecting the
old stone
circles in a grand design, called them "ley lines." He theorized that
they
were the roads of ancient merchants. Other British researchers have
concluded
that they are energy paths, linking the sacred sites of ancient
Britain, or
perhaps even
serving as roadways for UFOs.
There are straight-line roads on the European continent as well, and
these have
given us a hint as to their ultimate meaning. In Holland, such roads
were once
known as "pathways of the dead," and often led to cemeteries. It was
once a
common European belief that the souls of the dead traveled along
straight
lines--as when that procession of spirits called the Wild Hunt came
swooping
through the villages, causing joy to some and terror to others, dancing
through
the sky to the North Star, as well as upon the earth. Those who
followed the
Wild Hunt, the medieval Witches, also traveled in straight lines--up a
chimney
or riding on a broomstick-- to join their departed friends.
No wonder that Chinese geomancers or feng shui men prefer curved lines
to
straight ones! According to them, straight lines on the landscape are
"spirit
paths," or "ghost paths," and ordinary mortals are better off staying
out of
the way.
This belief in "spirit paths" is nearly universal. In Peru, the
straight-line
roads are called "ceques," and they all head to "huacas," the shrines
of the
mountain gods. Who are the mountain gods? They are the deified
ancestors of
the people. At one time, they were all mortal. Just as European
witches who
followed the Wild Hunt traveled in straight lines, so also do Peruvian
shamans
when they "fly"
on waves of energy to visit the mountain spirits. In
the Mayan
country, magnificent roads made of white stone once connected different
cities
and shrines. They were called "Sac Be," which simply means "white
road," or not
so simply--for the Milky Way, which led to the North Star, or realm of
departed
souls, was also known as Sac Be.
In New Mexico, straight-line roads lead from various Ansazi ruins to
the most
magnificent ruins of all--the mysterious cities of Chaco Canyon.
Though there
are no legends that hark back to the distant days of the Chaco Empire,
the Hopi
Indians say that the straight-line roads are "ancestor paths," used
for ritual
rather than for practical purposes.
Rather than embodying the magic of a single culture or people, the
straight-line roads are part of a common human heritage that resonates
with some
of the oldest spiritual beliefs of all--reverence for the spirits of
our
ancestors, and a willingness to walk with them on the North Star Road.
by Ken Johnson,
copyright 1997
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ANYBODY HAS A CLUE WHAT THEY ARE FOR? I KNOW THERE ARE A BUNCH OF THERORIES BUT WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK?
