ANCIENT STONES Continued from Page 29
(And God said “Let there be light.”) of what does this matrix, upon which these waves travel, consist? It is, some would argue, com- posed of the waves. The waves, in this view, travel upon the matrix and the matrix is made up of the waves. The seeming absur- dity of the concept is, it can be argued, its greatest strength. And accordingly it seems that whatever the nature of chi, ancient structures were designed to focus and alter it, harnessing it for a variety of purposes. So the shape and probably the location of mega- lithic structures would be important, with the Great Pyramid perhaps functioning rather like a huge lens (almost certainly an oversimplification). But the materials com- posing the structures would also be impor- tant. Various kinds of stone are composed of minerals which are usually made up of crystals (groups of molecules arranged in a three dimen- sional repeating pat- tern), and crystals, like the pyramid, have precise geo- metric shapes. There has long been a folk- lore associated with crystals, including gemstones, attrib- uting healing or mag- ical properties to them.
Stonehenge
Geologists clas- sify rocks as igneous, sedimentary, and
metamorphic. Igneous rocks are those which have solidified from a molten mass. The var- ious forms of granite (found in the Great Pyramid) are an intrusive magma that cooled slowly, producing large crystals. Granite is usually described as felsic, com- posed of silica (SiO2, or quartz) and feldspar. Ideally, quartz crystals are hexagonal prisms with a six-sided pyramid at each end; more commonly only one end is fully developed. The various kinds of feldspar are complex compounds of oxygen, silicon, and alu- minum, plus either calcium or potassium. Feldspar crystals tend to be rectangular prisms and are usually triclinic, with three vectors of unequal length. Some have paral- lelogram bases. Quartz covers the ancient structure of Newgrange, in Ireland, and can be used as an oscillator in quartz watches. Basalt, found in megalithic structures in sev- eral locations, but especially in South America, is an extrusive igneous rock that has small crystals due to rapid cooling on the surface of the earth. It is typically com- posed of silica (SiO2 again) and calcic feld- spars. It may contain magnetite, an iron compound that may be naturally magne-
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mountains in Wales, some 250 miles away. The oldest structure in Stonehenge proper is the ditch, probably begun around 5,100 BP, and the rest of the monument was con- structed in stages over a period of centuries. But under the parking lot, across the two lane highway (there is a pedestrian tunnel for visitors), archaeologists have excavated wooden posts dated to 10,000 BP. Several types of stone are found at Stonehenge, and it is important to note that the general view is that particular types of rock are often chosen for construction for their esthetic qualities, local abundance, durability, or for being easily worked. But what is intriguing about the bluestones are anecdotal claims that they always seem warmer than the other stones. Could it be that they are absorbing and transmuting chi energy, or simply re- taining solar heat better? Or are the people making the claims simply imagining it? This claim, at least, would be fairly easy to test. And there are many other types of rock at Stonehenge, including sandstone, and, as mentioned above, much of the Great Pyr- amid is made of limestone. These are
Continued on Page 61 Number 85 • ATLANTIS RISING 31
tized. Basalt, usually dark gray or black, is said to be mafic, meaning that it contains a relatively large amount of iron and magne- sium compounds. Andesite, a lighter colored extrusive igneous rock, is less mafic. Diorite, a very hard intrusive igneous rock, is chemi- cally similar to andesite and is found in Egypt and was carved by the ancient Egyp- tians.
Another igneous rock is bluestone (the name has actually been given to several types of sedimentary and igneous rocks). It is an intrusive mafic rock often found in dikes (vertical cracks in the country rock through which the intrusive magma has flowed) and sills (horizontal structures where the magma has forced its way between the bedding planes). At Stonehenge, along with the large sarsen stones, there remain 43 of the two- to four-ton bluestones, and there may have been as many as eight, originally. The blue- stone at Stonehenge is called Preseli spotted dolerite and was brought from the Preseli
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