The Sacred Centre is a new edition of John Michell’s 1994 classic At the Centre of the World: Polar Symbolism Discovered in Celtic, Norse and Other Ritualized Landscapes. It brings to light the symbolism and power of sacred locations both in ancient and modern times.
     John Michell died in April 2009 at the age of 86. He was the author of numerous books and articles on earth mysteries and really pioneered the genre with his 1969 New Age bestseller View over Atlantis.
     He is credited for the popular interest in ley lines, sacred geometry and sacred architecture. He was also a lively Fortean gadfly in the face of contemporary scientific pretension.
     In this work Michell shows that from the earliest times in human history, families, small bands, tribes, communities and nations have always sought to locate and define themselves by creating a ‘centre’ of their world. This was done by various methods, but most of all by the use of sacred geometry.
     It would be remiss of anyone to characterise ancient man by ignorance and lack of knowledge when there is still evidence of a mighty body of knowledge in nature and land. When this was harnessed with geometry and symbolism, we see far higher cultures than our school history lessons led us to believe. From the family hearth to the centre of government, the centre has been and will continue to be important whether we acknowledge it or not.
     The material in the book is divided into seven large chapters. It progresses logically from the history of finding, building and maintaining centres to a closer examination of places in the northern hemisphere where the evidence can be seen clearly today.
        There is also a full discussion of the “cosmological prototype.” The content is ably supported by diagrams, maps and photographs, with a bibliography and indices.
        The reader should be aware the author concentrates on the sites that are known and accessible in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandanavia and Iceland. He especially spends time explaining the ‘Things’ on the Isle of Man and the Isles of Faroe.
     I was puzzled about the Things – sometimes called Tings. I was likewise somewhat unsure about the Omphalos. Some quick research revealed that a Thing was a place where people gathered for the government of their region or home. Justice and administration decisions were made there. All over the UK there are place names indicating that they were at the centre of a particular region or area. For instance, Tingwall.
     The Omphalos or ‘Navel of the World’ has a far more religious connotation, being a hollow stone of some sort and denoting a ritual centre or religious shrine or oracle. The most famous of these is in Delphi. The Omphalos was thought to allow direct communication with the gods. Very useful.
     The cartography, sacred geometry and cosmological prototype mathematics contained in the material are beyond my meagre training in such areas. Even so, there is an intuitive nature to the overall imagery as it relates to the complex mathematics. All I can say is that the designs touch my mind in a way that says they are beautiful and ‘right’. John Michell was much influenced by Plato and the history of symbolic numerology from ancient civilisations.
     This is by no means a simple read. It is complex, but ultimately fascinating. It will please and intrigue all who are interested in earth mysteries, ley lines, sacred geometry, geomancy, gematria, sacred sites, and archaeoastronomy. I was surprised by the complexity of the evidence from antiquity that survives to this day.
     Australian readers will be fascinated and amused by the brave efforts in 1988 of the Royal Geographical Society of Australia to locate the centre of this great island continent (pp.25-26).
     I enjoyed reading this book, although I must say some of the later material required extra attention and focus on my part due to the necessarily arcane nature of it all.
     It is without question a specialist publication that will be admired for the thorough research that went into it. It is a fine memorial to the pioneering and prolific writer John Michell.