Tonight’s full moon marks the real Easter, which, before Christianity, used to be celebrated on the first full moon after the Spring Equinox on March 21st.
In this article and video, I explain how the origins of the festival of Easter go back as far as the most ancient dragon lore, which existed long before Christianity.
Those dragon teachings in themselves make up a deep esoteric metaphor for the knowledge of how to bring the heavens down to the Earth.
So what do I mean by bringing the Heavens down to the Earth? Well, it’s quite simple. In modern terms, we can compare it to installing inside us a new router with a high speed internet connection to the gods. There is no need to build Artificial Intelligence when our access to divine intelligence is already built within us.
The shamanic knowledge of the technology for this is buried deep in the cognitive permaculture of all of us humans on the planet. We only can’t recognise it because its portal has been concreted over by the dogmas of innumerable religions over more than a thousand years. But as some of you will know, with my books, articles and videos. I’ve been taking a sledgehammer to that concrete.
So you’re welcome to listen to my talk here, or carry on and read it in this article.
WE NEED TO GO BACK IN TIME, and pick up this story from the teachings of the ancient Mysteries, which were practised all around the Mediterranean thousands of years before Christianity.It’s clear from studying their myths that the wise sages and mages of old knew how to bring down the heavens to the Earth. This is because they were adepts in the Mysteries of Time and Space. They had the knowledge of the sacred measurements that give life and movement to the cosmos and that find their alchemical expression in every living thing, including man.
Thus, they understood that the timings and locations of spiritual practises were key to their success. They knew that for the most auspicious outcome of any human endeavour, all thoughts, words and deeds associated with it needed to be properly aligned with the right stars, at the right time, at the right place.
The vital importance of this practice was inscribed on the ancient Egyptian Emerald Tablet. “As Above, So Below,” and so the pyramids and Vedic fire altars were built accordingly.
The Vedic Indians described these cosmologically-aligned, ritual sites as yantras. Yantra is just the Indian word for the technology on the land that optimises our connection with the hierarchy in the heavens above – in other words, the eternal gods who live in the higher arch that these storytellers ascribed to the Milky Way.
So how does this connection differ from praying anywhere and at any time? Well, it’s fine to do that too. But it is the difference between dial-up and high-speed broadband internet.
This superior connection was – and still can be – achieved by constructing religious buildings as supernatural transformers of energies. So how did they do that? It was by observing certain sacred geometrical principles in their architecture and in their music of praise. That’s why it’s said by those in the know that the architecture of the great cathedrals, like Notre Dame on the banks of the Seine in Paris, is like frozen music.
But the place of worship also had to be sited on the right location… and so this would be divined by a whole assortment of diviners – astrologers, astronomers and alchemists – but also dowsers who would trace energetic lines across the land to find the right location.
These twisting, serpentine, electromagnetic lines became known as dragon lines, or serpent lines. And so those with this knowledge would build their sacred temples, cathedrals, mosques and synagogues where these dragon lines crossed, and those crossings were called nodes.
So if you were to zoom out and view it all from the air, you’d see the layout of these buildings along the nodes of the serpent lines in a pattern or shape that was known in ancient India as a yantra.
Sometimes, whole cities are… or were… yantras. For instance, the temples of the Indian town of Varanasi (formerly called Benares) were originally sited on this sacred layout. And that was what led to the city becoming renown worldwide as one of the holiest places on Earth.
This was in the days when a pilgrimage into a certain landscape was a real thing… and meant something more than just having a good walk! Pilgrims, known as saddhus in India, to the town of Varanasi found that their prayers and offerings while within the sacred space there held much greater resonance.
Unfortunately, though, the advent of bhaki yoga – or devotional yoga – in the 16th century wiped out this golden age of temple building.
The trouble is, when ‘love’ – and not wisdom – becomes the reserve currency of the consensus, people can get away with murder in its name. As we see even in this modern age, when the ‘feelies’ are put above the ‘thinkies’, all sorts of nonsense starts to break loose and cause havoc, even wars.
And so it was then that the mandirs of Varanasi began to sprout up over the place, willy-nilly, as local worthies competed with one another to be considered the most holy and deserving of God’s love, by erecting the grandest and most gilded buildings wherever they felt like it. They made such a mess that now, five centuries later, there are only a handful of Indian holy men who have the knowledge of the sacred geometry of the original Varanasi yantra.
I must say, though, one good thing about the Christian equivalent of bhakti yoga – based on the love for Jesus Christ – was that it wasn’t so damaging to this knowledge. During the Norman period, they built their churches using the correct sacred geometrical principles of the Mystery teachings, and in alignment with the yantras of the lands.
So how did they do this? They knew enough to know that they needed to site their churches as near as possible to the shrine that had been powerfully operational on that dragon line for millennia, because of local shamanic knowledge. And this site was almost invariably around a yew tree. So if you’ve ever wondered why there’s so often an ancient yew tree in churchyards, this is why.
There is also a yantra where I live, on the land we call Avalon, which I’m now going to go on to tell you about, because it is the landscape container – or cauldron if you like – for the magical celebration of Oestre.
We call it the Diamond of Avalon. It was discovered quite recently by the visionary artist Yuri Leitch, after he combined two landscape triangles that had been each found originally by two antiquarian researchers, separately, over the last few centuries.
The dragon lines expand and contract in width according to the cycles of the Moon. I talked about this in one of my recent videos, Moon Magic, and about how the serpent lines at their fullest width at full moon are probably the Moon River that’s sung about. They are to me, anyway. One of them goes through my house, and it is like a huge energetic river washing through.
But this effect of the cycles of the Moon on the serpent lines meant that they were perceived by the sages and mages of old to be alive and wriggling their way across the land, like serpents sloughing off their skins which they used as a symbol for rebirth.
But first you need to know, if you don’t already, that there is a dragon line, known today as the St Michael line, that passes through the summit of Glastonbury Tor on its way up from Lands End in Cornwall, and on to the east coast of Britain. There is also a continuous line of rivers, brooks and streams that wind their way around the St Michael line, and that is referred to as the St Mary line.
We think the St Michael line was originally known as the Bel line, after the sun god, Bel. But it is certain that it was named by Benedictine monks in the 7th century as the St Michael line, and they built churches on the summits of the hills it passes through.
We find images of St Michael slaying the dragon in the iconic art of the Christian church.
Over time, the dragon was changed into a demon or devil, just as the wise serpent of the Garden of Eden was demonised. In fact the dragon-slaying hero of ancient myths symbolises someone who has mastered the dragon of knowledge about how to bring the Heavens down to the Earth, and thus how to build temples sited on yantras accordingly.
This dragon-lined Diamond of Avalon is ‘drawn’ in the skies by the Sun’s passage on the four original pre-Christian festivals of the year – Beltane, Lughnasadh, Imbolc and Samhain.
At the same time, the other side of the diamond line is ‘drawn’ by the passage of the Moon from Cadbury Castle to Glastonbury Tor. These are the two highest summits from which its furthest southern and northern points can be seen.
This creates the diamond of the engagement ring of the sacred marriage on the land, known to alchemists as the Alchemical Marriage, and known to esoterists as the Marriage of the Sun and the Moon. But if there is a marriage, there has to be a honeymoon… and so what is the fruit of that heavenly coupling in the nuptial bed or nest? This marriage leads to the ultimate symbol of fertility – the hatching of the dragon’s egg.
All cold-blooded serpents, like dragons, lay eggs, and this is why we give painted eggs at Oestre, to give thanks for the rebirth of Spring.
I’m sure you’ve seen the jeweller Gustav Faberge’s beautifully elaborate, jewelled eggs, which I think must have been created in acknowledgement of these dragon mysteries.
In the 19th century, when Faberge was training in his craft with goldsmiths, the study of metallurgy was closely aligned with the study of alchemy, and apprentices were sworn into secret guilds. A lot of the wisdom of the Mysteries was passed on in that way.
Oestre takes place on the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, which as I record this talk in 2022 will be Saturday 16th April.
Because Oestre is always celebrated on the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, then that’s why it’s never fixed to a set date on the Church calender, unlike Christmas.The Christian church celebrates Easter Day on the first Sunday after that first full moon, also known as the Pink Moon.
The cross on our hot cross buns also comes from this old esoteric practice.
King James 1st tried to ban hot cross buns because he said they had supernatural qualities. He knew quite a lot about Earth Magic and he didn’t want ordinary folk like you and me practising it! But it’s not that the buns themselves are supernatural… it’s all in how they are used.
Even over the last few years, a number of pressure groups have suggested that hot cross buns should be banned so as not to offend Muslims. But these buns are not Christian! King James 1st could have told them that!
Small buns or cakes were traditionally given out on all four major pre-Christian festivals.
The astrological symbol for the Earth is a circle with a cross, just like a hot cross bun. The cross represents the cross of the four major festivals of the year – and at the same time, the cross of the nodes, or the powerpoints of the land where the dragon lines intersect.
You’ve probably heard the tale about King Alfred the Great burning the cakes? Well… this brings me to another location near here, on the St Michael line. It’s a high grassy mound called Burrow Mump, and it is a major landmark on the outline of the diamond yantra.
Alfred had retreated to the wilds of the Somerset marshes to lick his wounds from his many defeats at the hands of the Vikings. He was staying at Athelney monastery, which is about a mile from Burrow Mump, as the crow flies.
But the story of King Alfred burning the cakes is an occult magical reference to this ancient, traditional practice of burning a cross on the Oestre buns to offer as thanks to the goddess of the Spring.
You just take an ordinary bun, and with a hot brand or knife, burn a cross on it. It’s as simple as that.
Even today at Oestre-time, some of us still stand on the grassy banks of Moon Drove and throw our hot cross buns into the river that runs below Burrow Mump.
If you’d like to know more about the magical, druidic knowledge of the Wessex court of King Alfred the Great, which helped him to win the seminal battle against the Vikings at Edington in 878 CE, it’s all in my book Stories in the Summerlands.
And if you’re considering a pilgrimage to this region of Somerset, and I highly recommend you do, Stories in the Summerlands is the ideal guide to help you find all the secret, esoteric places on the landscape that would otherwise be hidden from your eyes by the magical veil of the holy land of Avalon.
Annie Dieu-Le-Veut 