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The Ley, common too in Scottish and fish cultures, also includes 'black energy lines' which are harmful, like the malevolent forces (sha chi) that exist in Chinese fung shui. They manifest themselves in bitter winds that blow from a corner of a building facing a railway track or telephone lines, or a straight watercourse with bad fung shui. These can affect both physical and mental health and cause misery.
Like fung shui 'veins', ley lines are believed by many to entwine with vital life forces and the mysteries of hidden earth energies. Some believe they can be sensed by the psychic when driving over them in a car. Both fung shui and the ley have sometimes been styled as examples of the 'great nature religions'.
Australian Songlines
In Australia, the aboriginals follow wandering, invisible 'dream paths' to honour spirits of the land. These were once the routes of their nomadic ancestors. Trade is said to follow the same paths, some of which are only 'visible' at sunrise. The religious duty of the aboriginals is to travel the land and to reach back in time and space. There is some resemblance between Australian 'songlines' and ley lines in Britain.
A few etymologists will tell you that the first language was, in fact, song (Chatwin, 1987, 61). And, wherever men have trodden, they have left a trail of song. Nomadic aboriginal 'ancestor beings' created the 'dreaming tracks', 'memory palaces' (Edwards, 1990; 12) and the songlines as they moved across the Australian landscape (Cundy, 1994). They left a trail of, so-called, 'life-cells' or 'spirit-children' along the 'lines of force' and footprints linked to particular points and sacred sites in the landscape. To these, souls are tied. A pile of rocks represents the eggs of a rainbow snake. A boulder of red sandstone symbolises the liver of a kangaroo.
Dowsing
The Bible tells us Moses used a rod to discover water. Dowsing (as used to detect water, minerals, metals, and hidden treasure) employs a form of latent or sixth sense in which rods, pendulums, or forked sticks (commonly of hazel, willow, or peach) are held in the hands to measure energies emanating from the earth. Even coat hangers, pitchforks, and bones have been used on occasions. Man's natural dowsing ability may be likened...