The Mystery of MaeShowe
- Larry Pahl
- Feb 8
- 8 min read
The humble mound behind me in this photo is humble MaesHowe. It is the northernmost megalith - last one before the North Pole! - on a sacred line beginning in Brittany in France and continuing through the entire length of the UK, cutting through capitals Cardiff (Wales) and Edinburgh (Scotland) and the large Castlerigg stone circle. An indication that this mound is something special, besides the alignment with capitals, is that Castlerigg is exactly at the phi (φ) point between MaesHowe and the Goulvars menhir. It is 793 kilometers from Goulvars to Castlerigg and 490 kilometers from Castlerigg to MaesHowe. 793/490 = 1.618, φ, the golden ratio!
Photography is not allowed inside the protected MaesHowe interior. The archaeological guides who lead the tours at the site say it is built on granite. This, they say, sets MaeShowe apart from everything around it. They say that they know this means the site was important to the ancient people who built it, but they are honest and say its significance is not now known, it has been lost in history. Above you can see that it is at the northernmost top of a line going through the UK capitals and the large stone circle at Castlerigg, indicating its importance.
MaesHowe is older than the Egyptian pyramids. There are 4 standing stones inside, blending in with, but not incorporated into the interior stonework, which the experts say were standing before the mound was built around them. This makes me think of the expression, the "4 corners of the Earth". Given the indications of the importance of this site, might this be an allusion to the Earth itself? Since Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid both display knowledge of the size of Earth in their dimensions, MaesHowe may do the same somehow, so I began looking more closely at the few measurements I was able to take at the site.
I measured the entrance passage to MaesHowe, almost 30 meters long. If MaesHowe is really a megalith meant to leave meaning beyond itself, it would seem its door might be a repository of revelation. The opening - the door - of the entrance is the same dimension all through the length of the entrance. passage, 38" wide and 52" high.
So right out of the gate is an indication of something profound... dividing the height by the width to get the door's ratio, is 1.37.
137 is the reciprocal of the cutting edge concept of modern atomic physics, the Fine Structure Constant, designated alpha, α. Famous atomic physicist Richard Feynman said of this mysterious α constant:
"It has been a mystery ever since it was discovered ... all ... physicists put this number up on their wall and worry about it. Immediately you would like to know where this number ... comes from: is it related to pi or perhaps to the base of natural logarithms? Nobody knows. It's one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by humans. You might say the 'hand of God' wrote that number, and 'we don't know how He pushed His pencil."
So the enigma of MaesHowe speaks back to us with an enigma: 137, a dimensionless constant that has to do with the boundaries of matter and energy.
There are some other interesting finds from the MaesHowe door. The door is 38" wide. That is 3.16.' The number 3.16 is essentially the square root of 10, √10. This number signals a meaning similar to the fine structure constant, α, also seen in the door's dimensions. The square root of 10 can be interpreted as the essence or foundation of divine order and completion. It represents the underlying principle that generates the wholeness and unity symbolized by the number 10. It can also be seen as a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms, as it is a number that cannot be perfectly represented by a finite decimal. The fine structure constant deals with the physical world - protrons and electrons - and the likelihood of their taking in or emitting energy, or light - the spiritual realm.
So both √10 and α (the fine structure constant) deal with the border between matter and light, the physical and spiritual worlds. The indications of two different significations in the door: its height/width ratio of 1.37 and its width of √10' are that something profound is being symbolized by this construction. The doorway into the structure is indicating that these ancient sages were informing us not only that they were capable of modern GPS precision, advanced math, and sacred geometry, but also were giving us clues about how to enter within the veil to the world beyond our own physical world. They seem to be sharing their faith in an afterlife, which is capable of being reached...
The MaesHowe door is opening profound concepts! And there is more...
The above diagram with the dimensions of the MaesHowe door shows the width as 3.16'. Used as a diameter, this creates a circle with a circumference of 10'. A circle symbolizes eternity, no beginning and no end. The circle is an ancient symbol of Heaven, and the square (or rectangle), Earth. (The circle is outlined with a dotted line because it is implied, not visible.) The fact that its circumference is 10' dovetails with the symbolism of the circle itself. 10 is a combination of 1, a symbol of the male genital, and 0, a symbol of the female, joined together for the creation of a new life. The number 10 is associated with the idea of the completion of one cycle and the beginning of the next.
So it could be that somehow MaesHowe is both a symbol of Earth, and the Earth made new, the New Earth talked about in Revelation 21:1:
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away..."
When we are interpreting ancient megaliths, it is a form of reading an ancient holy book, written in stone. So if the replacement of the present ecologically impaired Earth with an Earth made New is an ancient idea, then why shouldn't it be written in stone long before the prophecies in the book of Revelation? And of course it should be. All true prophecy comes from Source, the ΑΩ. So it seems to me that MaesHowe is hinting that it somehow symbolizes the Earth that we live on now... but also, somehow, the New Earth that is yet to be seen. MaesHowe is the northernmost, the top, of a line through the whole of the UK, running through capital cities Cardiff and Edinburgh, golden-sectioned by Castlerigg. Its placement screams out depth of meaning!
Alexander Thom, the Oxford engineer, discovered the ancient Megalithic Yard (MY) through deduction from measuring hundreds of megalithic sites throughout the UK. The Megalithic Yard is distinct from the metric system, the British system or the Egyptian system of cubits, being 2.72 feet. An indication that the MY is used in the measure of the MaesHowe doorway, is that taking the measure of the height on each side, if the intention was slightly less than the 52", yields two lengths of 1.58 MY, which added together are 3.16MY. So, the width is 3.16' and twice the height is 3.16MY. When the same number is found at a site from two different measuring systems, it is significant, indicating skilled intentionality. And it happens again, in a third system of measure, as follows.
The 52" height of the MaesHowe door is 2.52 royal Egyptian cubits (rc). Since there are four primordial standing stones in the mysterious interior of MaesHowe, let's multiply the height of the door measured in cubits by four.
2.52rc X 4 = 10.08rc
The 10.08 obtained from the MaeShowe door height is also a key factor in the foundational system of ancient metrology revealed by John Michell. He makes the case in Ancient Metrology (Ancient Metrology: The Dimensions of Stonehenge and of the Whole Worldas therein symbolised, Pentacle Books, Great Britain,1981) that Stonehenge is a permanent repository of ancient measures, the same way as cubit rods are stored in glass cases. He points out that the mean of the inner and outer dimensions of the Stonehenge circle, 97.32' and 104.27', is 100.8'. This length is conceptual, because there is no center line between the inner and outer dimensions, which are tangible. The 10.08 here at MaeShowe is also derived, a measure deduced from the architecture, not directly measured. The derived Stonehenge diameter of 100.8' when multiplied by 22/7 gives the circle circumference as 316.8', which, according to Michell, is another critical number in ancient metrology. 316.8' is half of a Greek furlong, and 1/100 of 6 English miles. Michell claims that 1008 and 3168 are ideal for expressing the conventional circumference/diameter pi ratio (22/7), because 1008 is 7 times 12 squared, and 3168 is 22 times 12 squared.
Since there is a circular cantilevered roof on top of the MaeShowe chamber, let's multiply this product times pi (π) as 22/7.
10.08rc X 22/7 (π) = 31.6rc
31.6 is ten times 3.16, thus 10 √10rc. Now three different measuring systems have the number 3.16, the square root of 10, in the doorway into MaesHowe:
Imperial feet: 3.16'
Megalithic yards: 3.16MY
Royal Egyptian cubits: 31.6rc (10 times 3.16rc)
As stated before it is very unusual that the same number would appear in three different measuring systems in the same ancient structure. Because of the importance and mystery attached to MaesHowe it could be that its founding sages intentionally placed these there to emphasize the concept of √10, the square root of ten. Ten (10) can represent wholeness, or completeness, or starting new at a higher level. A square root can represent getting to the root of something, its essence. This emphasis on 3.16, the square root of 10, dovetails with the idea of the New Earth, when the Earth will be renewed in the age to come.
MaeShowe joins not just Stonehenge, but other ancient architecture in reflecting this core metrology of 1008 and 3168. The New Jerusalem, in Revelation chapter 21 measures 1200 furlongs on each of its 4 sides. The English furlong is 660'. The perimeter of this glorious city is thus 31,680,000'. Plato's ideal city described in the Republic is a circle with a diameter of 10080 units, making the circumference of the city 31,680 units. The perimeter of the square which would surround Earth is 31,680 miles. Placing the Earth and Moon next to each other gives a diameter of 10080 miles to a circle of 31,680 miles.
So MaesHowe can be viewed as a physical representation of the idea of Earth going from a Garden of Eden, to an ecologically plagued, splintering Planet, which will again be renewed as the New Jerusalem in the New Earth in the Next Age. MaeShowe, sitting on the northernmost point in a special alignment running through national capitals, can be viewed as a history in measure of the birth, life and future of Planet Earth.
Comentarios