Bibliography: M

Mackey, Albert S., revised by Clegg, Robert I.
Mackey's Symbolism of Freemasonry, Its Science, Philosophy, Legends, Myths and Symbols
The Masonic History Company, 1945, 1946

Keywords:
ratio, polygons, polyhedra, Pythagoras, geometry in art-music-architecture, religion, myth, religious iconography, freemasonic symbolism, number symbolism, ancient, modern, Egypt, Europe, Middle East

Comment:
A fundamental source for those wishing to decipher the iconography of Freemasonic lodges and temples. Many other editions exist, all equally useful. CY

Maltwood, Katherine E.
A Guide to Gastonbury's Temple of the Stars
[-] 1929

Keywords:
symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, astrology, prehistoric, Europe

Comment:
The classically flakey proposal that the ancient Sumerians constructed a giant symbolic zodiac in the landscape around Glastonbury Tor in England. CY

MacNulty, W. Kirk
Freemasonry: A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol
Thames & Hudson, 1991, 1993
133 illustrations
LC 91-65320
ISBN 0-500-81037-0

Keywords:
ratio, Pythagoras, geometry in art-music-architecture, freemasonic symbolism, number symbolism, renaissance, modern, Asia, Europe, North America

Comment:
A useful picture book with abysmal text; its exegesis of Freemasonic architecural iconography is seriously marred by the author's ill-considered insistence on defining his subject matter via pseudo-Jungian psychological babble. CY

Mann, A. T.
Sacred Architecture
Element Books, 1993

Keywords:
natural proportion, patterns, ratio, golden section, spirals, polygons, polyhedra, Pythagoras, Fibonacci, geometry in art-music-architecture, natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, petroglyphs, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, archaeoastronomical observatories, astro-calendrical devices, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, feng shui, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, number symbolism, astrology, occultism, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, Africa, Asia, Australia, Crete, Egypt, Europe, Greece, Meso-America, Middle East, North America, Rome, Pacific Islands, South America, world survey

Comment:
A very fine, colour-illustrated overview of the entire range of sacred architecture, drawing heavily upon earlier works by Burkhardt, Gettings, Lethaby, Critchlow, et al. Written by an architect who is also an astrologer. Highly recommended. CY

Marfori, Mark
Feng Shui: Discover Money, Health and Love
[-], 19--
ISBN 0-9637748-4-0

Keywords: feng shui, Asia

Matthews, W. H.
Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of Their History and Development
Longmans, Green and Company, 1922
254 pp., 151 b&w illustrations
facsimile reprint by Dover Publications, 1970, under the title
Mazes and Labyrinths: Their History and Development
LC 70-107665
ISBN 486-22614-X

Keywords:
labyrinths, religion, myth, religious iconography in architecture, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, renaissance, Europe

Comment:
An excellent overview of the history of labyrinths as symbolic landscaping. Although it perforce lacks references to some recent archaeological findings, this shortcoming is amply offset by an incredible 21-page bibliography of long out-of-print books on mazes that you will be lucky to visit under lock and key in the world's finest university libraries. CY

McDonald, Jerry and Woodward, Susan L.
Indian Mounds of the Atlantic Coast: A Guide for Sites from Maine to Florida
McDonald and Woodward Publishing, 1987
ISBN 0-939923-03-3

Keywords:
mounds, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, sacred site tourism, prehistoric, North America

Comment:
This and the following entry are highly recommended for tourists. CY

McDonald, Jerry and Woodward, Susan L.
Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley
McDonald and Woodward Publishing, 1986

Keywords:
mounds, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, sacred site tourism, prehistoric, North America

Comment:
This and the above entry are highly recommended for tourists. CY

Meaden, George Terrence
The Goddess of the Stones
Souvenir Press, 19--

Keywords:
megaliths

Meaden, George Terrence
The Stonehenge Solution: The Secret Revealed
Souvenir Press, 1992
224 pp., b&w and colour illustrations
ISBN 0-285-63057-1

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, prehistoric, Europe

Comment:
Meaden is a professional meteorologist who proposes a novel theory to explain the 50 known neolithic British cursus monuments, low double-banked earthworks up to several miles in length, most now only visible through aerial photography. These, he says, memorialized the paths of tornados, which were seen as matings of the sky god with the earth goddess. He backs up the hypothesis with artifacts and with statistics on the orientation of tornado-paths in present-day England. This is sufficiently radical to recommend the book, but there is more: It is the author's contention that the solar alignments of British megaliths were used in "divine marriage" ceremonies whereby the shadow of an upright "god stone" would touch upon a "goddess stone" or the sun's directed rays in a passage grave would penetrate the recesses of a "womb shrine." Therefore, he contends, archaeoastronomers have been looking at Stonehenge backwards, trying to view the rising sun over the heelstone when they should be viewing the shadow of the heelstone as it falls onto the altar stone at the summer solstice. Meaden also discusses holy springs, with particular reference to the sacred source of the River Cunnt (now called the Kennet, alas) and he presents otherwise hard-to-find illustrations of a number of chalk phalli found in British barrows and cursus monuments. Had he refrained from mentioning crop circles, his presentation would have been more credible; even so, he has pried the lid off a very full box of wonders. Ignore the crop circle crap and read this book in conjuncton with Gimbutas' "The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe," Mohen's "The World of Megaliths," and Ritchie's "Scotland B. C." See also Howard's "Sex Worship" and Jennings' "Phallicism" for 19th century views on the "divine union" as a theme in shrine and temple architecture. CY

Meehan, Aidan
Celtic Design: Maze Patterns
Thames and Hudson, 1993
ISBN 0-500-27747-8

Keywords:
funerary-cemetery-burial sites, labyrinths, religion, myth, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, Europe

Comment:
Discusses some of the ancient Camonica Valley labyrinths; otherwise just a how-to book. TL

Comment:
In addtion to the how-to work on the construction of labyrinths and Celtic key designs, this book also gives some good details about ÒgoddessÓ form passage graves. CY

Meehan, Aidan
Celtic Design: Spiral Patterns
Thames and Hudson, 1993
ISBN 0-500-27705-2

Keywords:
spirals, labyrinths, religion, myth, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, Europe

Comment:
Discusses a three-spiral maze pattern inside Newgrange; otherwise just a how-to book. TL

Menninger, Karl
Number Words and Number Symbols
Dover, 1992
LC 91-42709
ISBN 0-486-027096-3

Keywords:
number symbolism, medieval, renaissance, modern, world survey

Comment:
A wide ranging scholarly work on number in cultural history, spoken and written language. Discusses the interweavings of number and human life, and how numbers and numerals, in the course of their evolution, have come to reflect the cultural style, the linguistic patterns, and the conceptual outlook of their makers and users. Includes the mystical, numerological and religious significance of numbers. MZ

Michell, John
Ancient Metrology
[-], 19--

Keywords:
metrology

Michell, John
At the Center of the World: Polar Symbolism Discovered in Celtic, Norse and Other Ritualized Landscapes
Thames and Hudson, 1994
LC 93-61809
ISBN 0-500-01607-0

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, megaliths, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, religion, myth, folklore, prehistoric, Europe

Comment:
The book concerns the apparent method that ancient societies used to site their sacred center, which did have something to do with the geographical center of the land (island, continent, etc) itself. Recall the mythic founding of Delphi, where two eagles were released from opposite ends of the land and met midway. Or as Akhenaton of Egypt founded his capital exactly halfway between the first cataract of the Nile and its delta. As to the implicit power of earth energies at a center, it still takes an augur to inAugurate that process. But see the book for worldwide examples of this center-finding process. G

Comment:
Also deals with northern European sites aligned to or bearing markers indicating the North Pole. CY

Michell, John
City of Revelation
Garnstone Press, 1971

Keywords:
natural proportion, ratio, polygons, Pythagoras, Fibonacci, links between geometry-music-architecture, natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, petroglyphs, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, archaeoastronomical observatories, astro-calendrical devices, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, feng shui, metrology, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, number symbolism, occultism, Atlantis, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, renaissance, Asia, Crete, Egypt, Europe, Greece, Meso-America, Middle East, Rome

Comment:
Michell squares the circle and lots more in this metrological and numeric tour de force. The religious, historical and symbological perpspective developed here is expanded in the author's later book "Dimensions of Paradise." CY

Michell, John
The Dimensions of Paradise: The Proportions and Symbolic Numbers of Ancient Cosmology
Harper and Row, 1988
216 pp., ilustrated
LC 87-46220
ISBN 0-06-250587-4

Comment:
Builds upon material Michell first published in City of Revelation. Presents the harmonious numerical standards that underlie the created world. Provides vital clues for understanding some of the oldest classical enigmas such as the dimensions and symbolism of Stonehenge, the plan of Atlantis, the numbers behind the sacred names of Christianity, the form of St. John's vision of the New Jerusalem, the name of the man with the number 666, and the foundation plan of Glastonbury and other sanctuaries. Reveals how these symbols suggest a potential for personal, cultural, and political regeneration in the 20th century. MZ

Comment:
Probably the finest book on the subject; it is clear that the authors of all the new age crap on gaia et al haven't a clue as to the enormous amount of real knowledge packed in a few books like this. In my universe, John Michell should be crowned a king. TP

Comment:
The publisher notes that "this book summarizes and extends researches first published in the author's 'City of Revelation.'" The two books are not, however, isomorphic. CY

Michell, John
The Earth Spirit: Its Ways, Shrines and Mysteries
Crossroad, 1975; Thames and Hudson, 1975
96 pp., 113 illustrations
LC 81-66809
ISBN 0-8245-0056-3

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, petroglyphs, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, archaeoastronomical observatories, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, metrology, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, number symbolism, occultism, Atlantis, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, Asia, Egypt, Europe, Greece, Meso-America, Middle East, North America, Pacific Islands, world survey

Comment:
A picture book; in my opinion it is the very best of the Thames and Hudson/Avon/Crossroads books published in the Art and Cosmos and/or Art and Imagination series. CY

Michell, John
A Little History of Astro-Archaeology
revised, expanded, and republished uner the title Secrets of the Stones
[-], 1976

Keywords:
megaliths, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, astro-calendrical devices, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, metrology, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, Europe, South America

Comment:

Michell, John
Megalithomania: Artists, Antiquarians, And Archaeologists at the Old Stone Monuments
Thames and Hudson 1982
166 pp.

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, metrology, religion, religious iconography, prehistoric, Europe

Comment:
It tells the story of reactions ancient and modern to megaliths. Surveys all the arguments and their protagonists about the megaliths' origin, purpose and builders. Profuse illustrations, some in colour, of artists' renditions of megaliths etc. Many interesting contemporary paintings from past centuries. Not a huge amount of text. TS

Michell, John
New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury
Gothic Image, 1990
ISBN 0-906362-14-8 (cloth), ISBN 0-906362-15-6 (pbk)

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, houses of worship, archaeoastronomical observatories, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, metrology, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, number symbolism, occultism, sacred site tourism, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, Europe

Comment:
Michell attempts to correlate the prehistoric earthworks of Glasdtonbury Tor with nearby sites, including Stonehenge, and with medieval Christian legend. CY

Michell, John
The Old Stones of Land's End: An Enquiry Into the Mysteries of the Megalithic Science
Pentacle Books, 1979
96pp., illustrated

Keywords:
megaliths, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, metrology, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, Europe

Comment:
A detailed survey of megaliths and Celtic crosses in a small area at the most southwest tip of Britain. Includes map references and detailed alignments. This was a fairly small press book, and I believe it is very rare now. TS

Michell, John
Secrets of the Stones: New Revelations of Astro-Archaeology and the Mystical Sciences of Antiquity
a greatly revised republication of the 1976 book A Little History of Astro-Archaeology
Inner Trads. Intl, distributed by Harper and Row, 1989,
126pp., illustrated
LC GN799.A8M518
ISBN 0-89281-337-7

Comment:
A slender volume that presents a concise history of archaeoastronomy from 1740 to the present, tracing its "status from lunacy to heresy to interesting notion and finally to the gates of orthodoxy," via short biographical sketches on Stukely, Lockyer, Watkins, Somerville, Teudt, Hawkins, Thom, Aveni, and others who have proposed that the ancients possessed a high level of astronomical knowledge, supplemented by accounts of those who have opposed them in print. Amply illustrated with old steel engravings, survey maps, and photographs, some depicting ancient sacred sites in Britain now gone. An excellent supplement to any reading list on archaeoastronomy; contains a good bibliography. CY

Michell, John
The Traveler's Key to Sacred England

Keywords:
sacred site tourism, Europe

Michell, John and Rhone, Christine
Twelve-Tribe Nations and the Science of Enchanting the Landscape
[-], 1990

Michell, John
The View Over Atlantis
Sago Press, 1969
Revised edition published as "The New View Over Atlantis"
[-], 1983, Harper and Row, 1986,
LC 83-47730
ISBN 0-06-250578-5

Keywords:
natural proportion, ratio, polygons, Pythagoras, links between geometry-music-architecture, natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, petroglyphs, houses of worship, vernacular architecture, archaeoastronomical observatories, astro-calendrical devices, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, metrology, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, number symbolism, occultism, Atlantis, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, renaissance, Asia, Crete, Egypt, Europe, Greece, Meso-America, Middle East, Rome

Comment:
Discusses ley lines, megalithic science, earth mysteries, and the inner meaning of number and measure. Explores traditional measures still in use today, dimensions of monuments all over the world, and suggests that such structures reveal their builders' knowledge of the size and shape of the spheroidal earth and actually embody the outlines of their cosmology. MZ

Comment:
An important work on sacred metrology; it must take its place beside Keith Critchlow's "Order In Space" (1969) as one of the most influential late-20th century books on the metaphysics of geometry. CY

Miller, Naomi
Heavenly Caves: Reflections on the Garden Grotto
George Braziller, 1982
142 pp., b&w illustrations
LC 81-18159
ISBN 0-8076-0967-8

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, folklore, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, Europe, Greece, Rome

Comment:
The only book of its kind; traces the development of the "grotesque" in landscape architecture from the genre's ancient roots in the Mediterranean and Adriatic regions, where natural sea-grottos were used as holy sites, through the cryptoporticus or architecturally-facaded grotto of the Romans, to the late Renaissance and early modern period, when the grotto spread northward into land-locked areas and became a garden feature. The emphasis is on the grotto as Nymphaeum, especially with reference to Greco-Roman classicism during the 16th through 18th centuries. Numerous examples of garden grottoes no longer in existence are depicted via period engravings and paintings. Only grottoes in which water is a feature are considerd, and short shrift is intentionally given to those with a chthonic or Hadean motif. Having deliberately shied away from the Hadean grotto, the author draws no connection between humanist garden grotto architecture and the contemporaneous religious tradition of ossuaria. This is unfortunate because the similarities between shell-encrusted French grottoes and bone-encrusted Austro-Hungarian ossuaria is striking to those who have studied them both. The Hadean garden grotto may supply a "missing link" between the two, but in the absence of examples, one can only guess at the distribution and appearance of the overlap in development of these seemingly divergent follies. Still, the text is excellent and the work deserves to be reprinted in a revised, colour-illustrated edition. CY

Mohen, Jean-Pierre
The World of Megaliths
Facts On File Inc., 1991
ISBN 0-8160-2251-8

Comment:
A fine overview of European megalith sites, particularly in Britain and France. Good illustrations and maps. CY

Mollett, J. W.
Dictionary of Art and Archaeology
Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, Rivington, 1883; facsimile reprint by Bracken Books Studio Editions, 1994
350 pp., illustrated
ISBN 1-85891-140-0

Keywords:
patterns, geometry in art-music-architecture, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, astro-calendrical devices, labyrinths, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, Asia, Egypt, Europe, Greece, Middle East, Rome

Comment:
The facsimile reprint is the best bargain in art history information in my library; everything from Aar ("Egyp. a plain in a superterrestrial region...which corresponded with the Elysian Fields...and Asgard...") to Zummarah (ÒEgyp. A musical instrument; a double reed pipe"), with stops along the way for echaea, hyperthyrum, octastyle, petoritum, suffibulum, and tasses. A cornucopia of seldom-encountered terms endemic to the study of archaeology, art, architecture, sculpture, costume, furniture, music, pattern design, and engineering. Highly recommended. CY

Molyneaux, Brian Leigh
The Sacred Earth: Spirits of the Earth, Ancient Alignments and Sacred Sites, Creation and Fertility
Little Brown and Company, 1995
184 pp., colour illustrations
LC 94-72920
ISBN 0-316-90303-5

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, megaliths, mounds, petroglyphs, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, archaeoastronomical observatories, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, feng shui, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, number symbolism, sacred site tourism, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, Africa, Asia, Australia, Crete, Egypt, Europe, Greece, Meso-America, Middle East, North America, Pacific Islands, Rome, South America, world survey

Comment:
If this book were three times as long as it is and had been printed in a larger format, it would have been the ultimate popular introductory world survey of sacred sitese. The photos, artwork, and diagrams are excellent although too small; notable is the inclusion of precise latitude and longitude maps for each site. CY

Mookerjie, Priya
Pathway Icons: The Wayside Shrines of India
Thames and Hudson, 1987
80 pp., 76 colour photos
ISBN 0-500-27428-2

Keywords:
houses of worship, vernacular architecture, religion, folklore, religious iconography, modern, Asia

Comment:
A well-photographed picture book of vernacular shrines to Shiva, Kali, and the rest of the Hindu pantheon. The sacred sites range from simple rocks painted red with a square of tin foil and two eyes appliqued to kitchy plaster figures in garish "naturalistic" colours. Notable are the many Shiva linga and goddess stones. CY

Morgan, William N.
Prehistoric Architecture in the Eastern United States
MIT Press, 1980

Keywords:
mounds, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, sacred site tourism, prehistoric, North America

Comment:
A wonderful book. EM

Morrison, T.
Pathways to the Mountain Gods: The Mysteries of the Andes Lines
Academy Chicago Publishers, 1988

Keywords:
symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, cosmology, prehistoric, ancient, South America

Myron, Robert
Shadow of the Hawk: Saga of the Mound Builders
Putnam, 1964

Keywords:
mounds, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, prehistoric, North America

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