John Michell, 1933 - 2009

“It was ragged and naïve, it was heaven."
-- David Bowie, Memory of a Free Festival.

John Michell, the author of The New View Over Atlantis, which put ley lines back on the map, died April 24 at the age of 76. Find an appreciation here and here and Paul Weston's excellent two-part tribute here and here. This from Julian Cope. There is YouTube video of him here.

Paul Weston points out the significance of Michell's "discovery" of the Michael (ley) line:

One of John Michell’s most important and enduring visionary insights was to notice an apparent alignment of Michael churches across the south of England. This has become probably the world’s most famous ley line. It stretches from St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, through his churches at Brentor, Burrow Mump in Somerset and the Tor, and goes on through Avebury stone circle and into Norfolk and the abbey at Bury St Edmunds. It travels across the longest continuous stretch of land in southern England. Many more churches dedicated to St Michael fall upon it. The suggestion is that the dragon force in the landscape was recognised by early Christians and certain esoterically-inclined church builders of the early Middle Ages.

From the Daily Mail:

Farewell to a new age guru

Druids, hippies and crop circle enthusiasts will be to the fore today for the funeral of eccentric Old Etonian mystic John Michell, 76, who died after a long battle with cancer.

Michell - who was an Eton contemporary of David Cameron's father Ian, and Britain's leading authority on ley-lines - helped establish Glastonbury as the capital of the new-age movement.

Two years ago, he wed Druid priestess Denise 'Denny' Price, 57, at St Benedict's, Glastonbury, attended by hundreds of well-wishers, including music festival founder Michael Eavis and society shoe designer Emma Hope.

But within two months, the unlikely couple, who first met 36 years ago, split up and then divorced. Michell's friends were scandalised when Denny tried to claim half of John's multi-million-pound Notting Hill home.

'When we heard Denny was trying to get half of John's house, after being married only for two months, we were incandescent,' says a friend. 'John told us he didn't mind. He was completely cool about it.'