I haven’t reviewed books before on this blog but I enjoyed reading Spirit Stones: Unraveling The Megalithic Mysteries of Western Europe’s Prehistoric Monuments by Dianne Ebertt Beeaff, so I thought I’d say a few words about it.
The ruins of Stonehenge in England are iconic reminders of an ancient and mysterious past but they are not the only links to that past. As author Beeaff points out in this fascinating book, there are thousands of such prehistoric memorials—standing stones, chambered tombs, stone circles—still remaining for us to ponder. The scope of this book is limited to England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Brittany, but that is not a limitation at all; there are more than 900 stone circles in the British Isles alone.
Beeaff gives us a detailed history of how these memorials came into being, who built them and why, and what they signified for their builders. But this is not some dry, dusty academic study of stone memorials, which are rocks, after all. The author gives us much more. After examining the monuments in terms of their cultures, architectural designs, motifs, and their usage as sacred spaces, she goes on to speculate on the various cultures’ beliefs relative to life and death, heaven and earth, the secular and sacred, and body and soul. In a section titled “Spiritual Fitness” the author shows how prehistoric monuments still have a connection to our modern times, either as healing agents or as repositories of myth and legend.
Profusely illustrated with color photos this is a beautiful and intelligent read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the ancient ways of megalithic peoples.
On a different note, I am happy to announce that Marie D. Jones will be my next guest blogger.
Marie is the author of PSIence: How New Discoveries in Quantum Physics and New Science May Explain the Existence of Paranormal Phenomena, Destiny vs. Choice: The Scientific and Spiritual Evidence Behind Fate and Free Will, 11:11 – The Time Prompt Phenomenon, and several other books. Her latest release is This Book Is From the Future: A Journey Through Portals, Relativity, Wormholes and Other Adventures in Time Travel. She has been on hundreds of radio shows and appeared on the History Channel’s “Nostradamus Effect” and “Ancient Aliens” series. She is also a co-host on the popular Dreamland Radio show.
Marie is a staff writer for Intrepid Magazine and a regular contributor to New Dawn Magazine. She has written on and lectured widely about cutting edge science, the paranormal, consciousness, Noetics, and metaphysics. Her essays and articles have appeared in dozens of books, anthologies and magazines, and she is the screenwriter of “19 Hz,” a paranormal thriller in development with Bruce Lucas Films. Her website is www.mariedjones.com.
I’m delighted to have her work appearing here on “The Metaphysical Traveler.” Stay tuned for her blog!