METAGEUM '07
EXPLORING THE MEGALITHIC MIND
CONFERENCE, TOUR, AND WORKSHOPS:
Exploring the Consciousness of the Megalithic Temple Builders
Caraffa Stores, Birgu, Island of Malta
3rd - 11th November 2007
Megaliths
Hagar Qim, Winter Solstice 2006. Photo credit:Peter B Lloyd
Megaliths are, literally, large stones. They were used for constructing large buildings before the invention of cement or mortar. Megalithic building traditions developed independently in different places and different times. Nevertheless, some features such as spiral motifs recur. This raises the intriguing question of the sources of such commonality. Do these 'form constants' represent universal features of the way the brain works? Or do they tap into a collective unconscious? Or do they reach out into a shared transpersonal domain?
Malta has the oldest free-standing megalithic structures in the world, dating back six thousand years. There are twenty-five megalithic temples in Malta open to the public, including the astonishing Hal-Saflieni hypogeum, an underground temple. The latter is not strictly megalithic, as it is actually carved out of the solid rock rather than being constructed with hewn stones. A second large hypogeum has recently been discovered in Gozo.
Understanding the Megalithic mind
Exceedingly little is known about the culture of the people who built massive structures around the world about 6000 to 2000 years ago. In many cases, there are no written records. From the engineering and social organisation required actually to build the structures (sometimes involving specific stones being transported from other countries), and the accurate astronomical alignment of at least some of the structures, it is evident that these edifices were built by advanced civilisations. Yet we know essentially nothing of their beliefs and values. Even the use of the megalithic structures is unknown. As they do not appear to serve utilitarian functions, conventional archaeology designates them 'temples', but that is little more than a label.
One plausible vector into understanding the megalithic mind is the prevalent and central use in their carvings and paintings of 'form constants' that also appear in visionary art that may be induced by entheogens or trance states. Spirals and lattices abound in key places. It is known that the megalithic people were perfectly capable of naturalistic art, as can be seen from their statuary. Yet, having invested phenomenal amounts of effort -- probably over generations -- in building their megalithic structures, they chose visionary form constants to have a central place.
Another vector into the megalithic mind is the discovery of unusual acoustic features of the buildings. It is at least plausible that these could have been used for inducing or steering trance states.
There is therefore growing belief that shamanism was one of the functions of these buildings. Possibly it was the main purpose. Given the amount of manpower that went into building them, we are led to the interesting conjecture that, for thousands of years, the earliest civilisations on Earth attached a central level of importance to shamanic, and possibly entheogenic experiences.
One way of getting a better handle on this is to study and understand modern-day shamanic and entheogenic experiences and visionary art.
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