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THE SACRED CENTER: The Ancient Art of Locating Sanctuaries by John Michell Inner Traditions, USA, 2009 (first published as At the Centre of the World, Thames & Hudson, London, 1994) ISBN 978-1-59477-284-9 (192pp tpb) Available: www.lnnerTraditions.com hen we feel in balance in body, mind and soul, we say that we eel centred. This sense has a long pedigree, going back to the times when we sat around a central hearth hat in turn was part of a whole that had a sacred heartland, a centre o he known universe. This reprint of John Michell's modern classic of 1994 is timely in hat it reminds us of the source of some of the ageless principles tha have guided humanity's progress. Michell focuses on the British Isles as well as Iceland and the Faroe slands, and explains that in days of yore these islands, big and small, had centres that were determined geographically as more or less the midpoint between north and south, east and west. Such centres were a feature of ancient Greece and Egypt, too, as well as Gaul (France). The case of the Isle of Man is particularly interesting. The island seems to be at the geographic midpoint of the British Isles, and open-air REVIEWS REVIEWS governments have been held at its centre for a thousand years or more. Celtic symbolism, geomancy, kingship tradition and cosmic codes are all par for the course in this spell- binding book by a pioneering researcher of sacred landscapes. construction of the pyramids. They also expand on Bauval and Gilbert's discovery about the stars in the Belt of the constellation Orion, saying hat the much older Thornborough henges also reflect these three stars. Cut to more modern times, and night and Butler reveal that the yout and key buildings of Washington DC's capitol were designed utilising these megalithic measurements, suggesting that the city's founders possessed secret nowledge passed down through Freemasony from ancient times. The authors are so sure of their claims hat they are prepared to challenge anyone to defend the reality of this ancient grand plan. This is compelling material that is serving to reinterpret our history. BEFORE THE PYRAMIDS: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery by Christopher Knight & Alan Butler Watkins Publishing, London, 2009 ISBN 978-1-906787-43-l (27Ipp tpb) Avail: www.watkinspublishing.co.uk Hm previously highlighted the work of British engineer Alexander Thom in rediscovering the megalithic yard, Christopher Knight and Alan Butler (Civilization One; reviewed in 11/06) show that this measure was incorporated into such structures as the Thornborough triple henge in Yorkshire, dated to c. 3500 BC, and Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. The geometry was based on a 366-degree system, and they found that the circumference of Stonehenge is 366 megalithic yards. In Before the Pyramids, Knight and Butler go on to show that knowledge of this system, developed on the British Isles and based on a precise fraction of the Earth's polar circumference, found its way to Egypt where it was applied in the NEXUS ¢ 71 DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com