EARTHQUEST NEWS

A Newsletter from Andrew Collins. Vol. 3, No. 4, Winter 2000

 

 

Seasonal greetings from the Earthquest camp. Let me begin with the announcement that the 2001 Questing Conference will be on Saturday, 13 October at the Institute of Education, University of London, Bedford Way, London WC1. All I can promise is a very special event which should eclipse all others. Potential speakers are being approached at this time, so watch the website for announcements soon.

 

SECRETS OF THE RUNNING WELL

The lack of any book contract at the moment has given me plenty of opportunity to explore local historical enigmas, the primary being new work on the archaeology and religious background of the Running Well. According to Janet and Colin Bord's 1985 gazetteer SARCED WATERS it is the county of Essex's only recorded example of a holy well (I wrote a book about it in 1983 entitled THE RUNNING WELL MYSTERY). Through regular field walks and well cleaning operations we have been able to determine a Roman presence in the vicinity around AD 300-400. During this period contextual evidence suggests that the spring was dedicated to the Gallish mare goddess Epona and/or a Celtic goddess of fecundity represented by images of Venus and associated directly with springs and well-heads, seen as symbols of the life-giving waters of life.

One example of Iron Age pottery was found by a local archaeologist just 40 or so metres from the well, while a Saxon shard dating to AD 400-500 was retrieved from sludge removed from the well during a cleaning operation. Moreover, it now seems that a large quantity of fired tiles, and burnt bricks found scattered about the site indicate the presence of a kiln which would have supplied tiles for a large building nearby, c. 1250-1500 AD. Various pieces of medieval stone masonry have also been uncovered. These include a large fragment of a mullion (upright window partition) in limestone, found beneath modern debris at the base of the well. A second piece, which fitted the first, was discovered just two weeks later hidden by undergrowth in a ditch some 20 metres away. A slab of well-worn fine-grained sandstone (or shale) in grey was also located in the same vicinity. It has two straight bevelled edges that abut at an angle of around 75-80 degrees, and there is every reason to propose that it is either a fragment of a flagstone or, more intriguingly, the corner of a trapezoidal tomb-slab. These pieces, along with two other examples purportedly discovered at the site during the 1930s-1940s, are likely to be remnants of a ruined chapel recorded in the parish register as having existed in the vicinity of the 'Shrine of the Bl. Virgin of the Runnynge Well' in 1602.

I am now working on a book called SECRETS OF THE RUNNING WELL, which will feature this new material on the holy well. This I hope to have ready for publication in April 2001. It will be self-financed and will contain advertisements from local businesses.

 

STORY OF THE ESSEX WITCHES

After that I shall start working on another Essex book which will take an in depth look at the real story of its witchcraft tradition. It will dissect what is known about colourful characters such as James 'Cunning' Murrell, the Witches of Hadleigh and Canewdon, and George Pickingill. It is a subject I have been working on here and there since 1981, collecting snippets and stories from Essex folk and old records. My interest was rekindled back in August when I held the first of two Pagan All-Dayers locally. These featured slide-talks given by me on the subject of Essex witchcraft. I also gave a high profile lecture on the same topic shortly beforehand.

The book will expose many myths created in connection with Essex witches and an alleged 'cunning craft', but for the moment here are some of the findings made so far:

Before Cunning Murrell died in 1860 he prophesised that there would always be 'three witches in Hadleigh, nine in Canewdon and a witch in Leigh for 100 years'. Researchers have usually taken this prophecy literally, but I can reveal that Murrell was almost certainly alluding not to individuals as such, but to witch families who passed knowledge and written material on from one generation to the next, seemingly always on the female side. For instance, I am now aware of the three witch families that constitute the 'three witches' of Hadleigh. Someone I know fairly well, and whom I have interviewed at length, is second in line (after her grandmother and mother) to take over the role in her family. She will receive a book dating from the time of Murrell or earlier and must move back to within seven miles of the church of St James the Less at Hadleigh. I wont give any names at this stage as the woman concerned is worried that her family could receive problems. I will deal with this subject carefully in the book. She has provided me also with some new material on Murrell since her family knew him well.

On the subject of the witches of Canewdon I have been working with Canewdon historian Sibyl Webster, who has lived in the village since 1965. All I can say is that the village's past connections with witchcraft promoted for the first time by Southend author Eric Maple in his classic work THE DARK WORLD OF WITCHES (1962) have been greatly exaggerated. He stated that an old villager named George Pickingill, who died in 1908 at the age of 105, had been 'the Witches Master' and could summon up the seven, or nine, witches of Canewdon simply by whistling. Maple's claims led to exotic stories regarding the origins of the modern pagan witchcraft revival from an enigmatic figure called 'Lugh', really Bill Liddell, a British ex-pat living in Auckland, New Zealand. He claimed to have been initiated into an East Anglian coven - prior to the modern revival under Gerald Gardner in 1947 - which he said was one of nine covens founded by 'Old George'. He saw Pickingill as the tutor to occultists of the Victorian era such as Wynn Westcott, one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Moina Bergson, the wife of Samuel Mathers, another Golden Dawn founder, and even Aleister Crowley. Liddell said that Crowley had even come to Essex to visit 'Old George' at his home in Canewdon.

All I can say is that I now have good reason to believe that George Pickingill was nothing more than a doddery old git, feared and loathed by superstitious villagers who believed he could instil ill-luck in those who crossed his path. Furthermore, it is now clear that the only reason that anyone from London took an interest in Pickingill was the fact that before his death he was considered to be the oldest man in England. His previously unknown obituaries show this, and yet none of them mention anything whatsoever regarding his claimed connection with witchcraft.

In addition to these facts, I now have evidence to show that some of the statements made by Maple in connection with Maple in 1962 had formerly been applied to James Murrell of Hadleigh. It has long been known that he visited Canewdon, but a newly uncovered news-story from 1959 reveals that it was Murrell who was said to have been able to call up the nine witches of Canewdon simply by whistling. There was no mention of Pickigill whatsoever. Moreover, the term 'Witches' Master' applied by Maple to Pickingill was a title also given to Cunning Murrell because of his association with the Canewdon witches. All this makes better sense of the evidence as Murrell is the more well-known figure connected with Essex witchcraft.

I have no faith whatsoever in the Bill Liddell material, although I am currently checking out one or two assertions made by his supporters in connection with 'Old George'. Yet if you remove George Pickingill from the picture then an even more interesting story emerges - one which shows that Canewdon was the home of a true witch coven that thrived during the 1840s, and was linked directly with Cunning Murrell who would seem to have acted as its magister (at least on occasions).

There is no question that Essex was the setting for traditional witchcraft which has survived in some form or another through to the present day. However, to fully understand its extent, and its relevance to the history of modern pagan witchcraft, it will be necessary to discard certain old sacred cows perpetuated during the 1960s and 1970s. In my opinion there were no nine covens of George Pickingill, and I challenge anyone to prove otherwise.

 

GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS

GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS has now appeared in paperback in the UK without any publicity whatsoever. It has also been published this autumn in the United States by Carroll and Graf. Although it is identical to the British edition, with the exception of a few errors corrected, it is a much finer quality product with crisper pictures and better text. The front cover once again displays the Naxos Gate, but the intensity of the colour is brilliant.

 

THE ANTARCTICA-ATLANTIS DEBATE

Recently I have been corresponding with Rand Flem-ath with regards to his belief that Atlantis is the ice-bound continent of Antarctica. One of the main points of debate is his assertion made in his 1995 book WHEN THE SKY FELL (co-written with his wife Rose) that the Atlantic Ocean was anciently thought to encircle the ancient world (a role usually applied to Okeanos, the Ocean River).

Although Rand has asked me not to quote directly from his emails, I am at liberty to cite my responses to his criticisms. Here is my first response sent to Rand on 18 October following a mail from him dated 15 October 2000.

 

Rand,

Yes, I have read your book [WHEN THE SKY FELL] most thoroughly and feel it is an important read. Indeed, it initially convinced me that Atlantis was Antarctica. However, my own research into the subject made me realise that your interpretation of Plato's account was slightly misleading and that Atlas was only held to be the guardian of the lands and waters of the extreme west. Remember, he is integrally linked to the story of the Islands of the Hesperides, which take their name from the Greek vesper, or hesper, meaning setting sun. Remember [too], the Hesperides were thought to lie even beyond the islands of the Gorgades (Cape Verde Islands), according to Pliny [and Solinus] after Statius Sebosus [Roman geographer, c. 100 BC]. The name Atlantic was not applied to the Western Ocean [only] in recent times. Furthermore, the term Atlantic was only applied in Plato's age to the Western Ocean, and not to Oceanus as a whole. In my opinion, there is nothing whatsoever in Plato's account to suggest that the Atlantic Island he spoke about was Antarctica.

I am not saying that Antarctica did not play a role in the evolution of humanity, as I feel it did. Nor that it might have been alluded to by other cultures, but Plato's island is not this one. I stick by everything I have said regarding Antarctica not being Atlantis. However, I will reread the relevant parts of your book in due course and continue the debate if you wish.

Best wishes,

Andrew Collins

 

He is another one sent later on 18 October after I had conducted a little bit more research on the subject.

 

Rand,

Further to our communication regarding the placement and origins of the Atlantic, I have done some home work and come up with this - perhaps the earliest reference to the Atlantic 'sea', as opposed to 'ocean', which, as you say, is a more modern conception. It appears in the works of Herodotus, c. 450 BC:

Book I, 203: 'The Caspian is a sea by itself, having no connection with any other. The sea frequented by the Greeks, that beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which is called the Atlantic, and also the Erythraean, are all one and the same sea.'

Herodotus is attempting to explain how the Caspian is land-locked, while the Atlantic, the 'sea' beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and the Erythraean Sea, which lies between the east African coast and India [or, simply, the Red Sea in some accounts] are really the same 'sea', in other words they are linked together. That Herodotus refers to the Atlantic being the 'sea' traversed by the Greeks stems from the tales told in Greek mythology regarding the voyages of characters such as Hercules and Atlas to the Hesperides. Herodotus cannot be alluding to any more than this, as the Western Ocean was in his age the domain of the Carthaginians and Phoenicians, who had ports in West Africa and Spain respectively. At a stretch, he cold be alluding to Greek contact with Tartessos via the port of Marseilles, which was said to have been founded by the Carians. Since he would also have been aware that Hecataeus around 500 BC recorded that the Hyperboreans (Britons) had a spherical temple of Apollo, he might have conceived the Greeks as having reached the British Isles.

Herodotus's knowledge that the Atlantic and Erthyaean Seas were one and the same is perhaps based on a separate reference in his works to the anti-clockwise circumnavigation of Africa made by Phoenician ships under the orders of the Pharaoh Necho II, c. 600 BC. This is found in Book IV, 42. Only the Phoenicians were believed to have made this journey from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean by hugging the African coast. The Atlantic 'sea' was seen in Herodotus' age, a century before Plato wrote his dialogues, as the waters beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and more specifically those west of the land of Atlas, i.e. Morocco, Algeria and the Western Sahara. In time, this came to include the seas to the north in the direction of the British Isles and the West African coast as a whole. A map by the publishers John Murray showing Eratosthenes view of the world has the 'Atlantic Ocean' to the west and south of the African continent. Yet such a geographical placement of the 'Atlantic Ocean' is incorrect, for it should only ever be placed beyond the west coast of Africa. Plato borrowed largely from Herodotus with respect to the setting of Solon's discourse with the old priest in the Temple of Sais. Plato would thus have been aware of Herodotus' knowledge and placement of the Atlantic 'sea'. It means therefore that Plato's own Atlantic 'sea' would have been conceived as existing beyond the Pillars of Hercules in the direction of the setting sun. If this is the case, then Atlantis could only have lain in the direction of the setting sun [i.e. not to the south when Antarctica is placed].

If you can find me any references to the Atlantic being elsewhere prior to Herodotus, I would be pleased to hear from you.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes.

Andy

I have not heard from Rand since this time but look forward to further debate on this important topic. For those interested, you can read Rand's new book THE ATLANTIS BLUEPRINT, co-written with Colin Wilson, which was published this autumn.

 

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES EXHIBITION

I have been asked to point out that the Unsolved Mysteries exhibition, which was scheduled to take place at Linz, Austria, next July, has changed it venue and date. It will now take place at the Schottenstift, Freyung 6, 1010 Vienna, which I understand is within the crypts of a major cathedral. The new dates are from the 22 July to 23 September 2001. According to organiser Klaus Dona, over 250 mysterious artefacts from cultures across the world have been secured for the exhibition, including many from completely unknown cultures in Ecuador and Colombia. The exhibition will also feature a major conference. I shall be there and if you want to know more check out their extensive website at www.unsolved-mysteries.net.

 

EARTHQUEST

If you live in the Essex area, it is worth noting that I run regular meetings under the Earthquest banner at the Cobham Lodge Hotel, Cobham Road, Westcliff-on-Sea. They take place on the first Monday of each month. Doors open at 7 pm for a 7.30 pm start. Admission is GSP 3. The next meeting is on Monday, 8th January 2001 and the subject is the latest developments in the Giza debate and pyramids in general. Seems as though Robert Bauval has been active responding on The Daily Grail website to criticism of his Orion-Giza correlation by Ian Lawton, co-author of GIZA: THE TRUTH (see http://www.ianlawton.com/gttindex.htm). Bauval's theories, originally proposed in THE ORION MYSTERY, are to be revised in a new sequel to be written in 2001.

That's about it for the moment. It is as well to know that this newsletter is only being sent out electronically. There is no snail mail out for a few months so the version that reaches the streets in, say, March-April will be strikingly different. You will also receive a copy of this. Thank you for your time.

Best wishes and Happy Yuletide,

Andrew Collins