Ley Lines: Where They Brought Us

Nazca Line portraying the spider. (Photo credit: Pinterest.)

Dream lines, faery trails, heilige liniens, Nazca lines, dragon currents. All of these names come from countries from around the world, spanning every continent eras ranging two thousand years old. They all have one thing in common: They all used ley lines long before we had a term for the powerful force.

What may not be as widely known is the level of belief in ley lines. Not just by today’s standards, but the history of this belief. Long before Watkins brought the idea to the mainstream, several cultures that never intersected had similar beliefs. The Australian Aboriginals, for example, have had stories as old as their culture detailing “dream lines.” These dream lines are said to be the paths that gods have walked in the physical plane, leaving behind powerful magic in their wake.

In Irish folklore, there are “faery trails” that man is warned to avoid. These trails are said to be closely tied to the Fae realm and, on certain days of the year, anyone who stumbles upon them may intrude upon a parade of faeries. To the Irish, this would almost certainly spell disaster. I actually remember a movie that referred to the faery trails, however, it didn’t take place in Ireland.

The movie that I’m thinking of is called Black Forest and, instead, takes us to Germanic lore in which the Fae realm can be walked into under certain conditions and only if one has found the right location. Germany indeed has their own version of ley lines, which they call Heilige Linien, or holy lines. Though they’re referred to as holy lines, the stories surrounding them are what you would expect of Germanic lore: Cautionary tales of people going where they don’t belong and finding trouble of supernatural origin.

We may be aware of the Nazca lines, the detailed pathways that create images when viewed from thousands of feet overhead. While they’re a mystery on their own, as they were formed over two millennia ago with no way of viewing the images from the sky, a new mystery came up with the popularity of ley lines. Along with the curious nature of the Nazca lines, people have been wondering if perhaps the Nazca used ley lines to map out their paths.

What I found that most surprised me was that the Chinese used ley lines as the basis of Feng Shui. It’s not only in the way that they organize and decorate a home for the best flow of Qi, but how traditional Feng Shui involved building structures on specific intersections of energy. The Chinese refer to these points as dragon currents, where the high-flying Yang energy that flows overhead intersects with the ground-dwelling Yin energy. The manner in which one finds these intersections is done purely by feeling the Qi of an area, navigating by sensation alone until the location is a perfect sync of Yin and Yang. This would also explain the meaning behind Feng Shui, which is literally translated to “wind and water,” but also explained as the principle of “what cannot be seen or grasped.” While this makes obvious reference to not being able to see the wind or grab water, it can also be taken to describe how the Chinese use Feng Shui to balance a location. Given the documented history of China, these beliefs in energy intersections can be dated back thousands of years, rivaling the Nazca lines in the use of ley lines.