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We explore stories of mystical adventure, inner transformation, and a little bit of fire – sometimes literally.
This show is about pushing limits into the unknown, discovering who we really are in the process, and celebrating the moments of connection that make us feel more alive.
Colleen 00:07
Welcome back to The Alighted Way. We're going to jump from the frying pan straight into the flames of a different fire in this next episode, as Janelle examines a major energy line on earth that begins in Ireland and passes through several countries, including England, France, Italy, Greece and ends in Israel at Mount Carmel. She investigates who this line is dedicated to, and what its connection to dragons might be. This show is about pushing limits into the unknown, discovering who we really are, and celebrating the moments that make us feel alive. So let's get into it.
Janelle 00:43
Hello. This is Janelle, and just wanted to start this episode with in 2015 Colleen and I headed to Ireland. It was a multi purpose trip. So one thing that we checked out was the Michael Apollo line. This is also known as the sword of St Michael, which is an invisible energy alignment that links in a straight line that follows important ancient spiritually significant sites across Europe and the Middle East. So it aligns with dedicated landmarks, shrines, churches that are all like I said, dedicated to St Michael from Ireland to Italy, followed by Greece, with temples of Apollo for the latter portion of it. Visiting the site was not meant to be due to weather and rough seas. The boat that we had booked to take us out to Skellig Michael, in Ireland, which is a small island off the coast, was canceled, but it whet my appetite to explore other parts of this line further. So this is Archangel Michael. We're talking about who is known as a fierce warrior, a protector of humanity. So of course, he would carry and use a flaming sword.
Janelle 02:11
According to Jackie Queally in her book The spiritual meaning of Rosslyn's carvings, Michael is the chief guardian of our planet. The Book of Enoch lists Michael as one of the seven archangels and as the protector of seven mountains of jewels, precious stones. And it said that the Tree of Life is located on one of these mountains, and that he's a protector of that too. So it is clear to me that the Christian dragon slaying Michael took over this line from the pagan dragon slaying sun god Apollo. So as Christianity began to spread through pagan Europe, Michael was a symbol of the Christian suppression and victory of the new faith over the old religions. The Christians sought to eradicate, subdue, capture this aligned living Dragon Force or currents at all of the key sites along the way up this line,
Janelle 03:14
Tall and highly visible rocks were often used for 1000s of years before the rise of Christianity, to mark pagan pilgrimage sites in ancient cultures, in this instance, from Ireland to Mount Carmel in Israel, churches were built over top of these pagan sites and then rededicated to Archangel Michael. So in China, these lines are known as Dragon lines, and in the west they are referred to as ley lines. They're all over the world, and some of them are more important than others. Alfred Watkins first coined the term in 1921
Janelle 03:56
but nowadays it's often used interchangeably with energy lines flowing in straight lines. There were two gentlemen, Broadhurst and Miller, who dowsed this line and wrote about it in their second book, The Dance of the Dragon. So just want to talk about dowsing for a second, because when people hear about dowsing,
Janelle 04:22
usually they associate it with some sort of water witching that you're looking you know, to drill a well, and then they call in water Witchers, plus they do a whole bunch of testing. But if anyone knows how expensive it is to drill a well, you kind of don't want to be wrong by using multiple tools and techniques, you can actually get pretty precise in the drilling of water, but that's not the kind of dowsing that I'm talking about these guys did, and that I'll talk about that I also became a dowser in 2008-2009.
Janelle 05:01
So I learned about ley lines in the courses that I took, and how to help earth by working with these ley lines. So Marie Diamond shared that ley lines occur naturally in the etheric or auric, magnetic field of the Earth, and that some of these lines can go askew. For example, bombs hitting the Earth, earthquakes, even, you know, the odd meteorite, any of these things, can cause the ley lines to go askew, and that they actually need to be realigned. This is a problem because migratory birds navigate along and follow the ley lines. So as I said before, some ley lines are more important, more powerful than others, and these ley lines, the Michael - Apollo line, is quite important, because as a dowser, you can locate and work with these as well as other lines. I use metal L rods, those are called dowsing rods, to do this. So sometimes the line might need very specific things to support it or bring it back online more. Sometimes it needs healing or clearing. Sometimes it needs activated in certain spots along the way. So there can be many reasons why it goes offline. I did not just learn how to dowse. I also became a dowsing teacher. This is the story of how that happened. So my friend and I went to a dowsing conference and the eight hour course was supposed to teach advanced dowsing techniques, but the guy stood up at the front of the class and spouted conspiracy theories all day. At one point later in the day, I was becoming frustrated, and I remember looking at him and in my mind saying, I could teach this class better than you, because I know more than you do. And then on the way home, my friend asks if I would teach dowsing at a Feng Shui school that she was thinking of starting. When I got home that night, there was an email from my dowsing teacher, Annette, saying that she felt it was time for me to teach dowsing, and so that portion of my life began.
Janelle 07:40
Two partners and I started the feng shui school together in 2010 we did a lot of the back prep work in 2009 but it dissolved in 2018.
Janelle 07:50
Anyway, back to the line. So as I have established the westernmost part of the Michael Apollo line begins at Skellig. Michael a small island off the south coast of Ireland, and it ends in Israel at Mount Carmel. The sequence of important places en route is as follows. So Skellig Michael is where Michael appeared, apparently after being invoked by St Patrick while he was removing all the serpents and demons from Ireland. Yep, it's the same guy. We celebrate March 17, and wear green.
Janelle 08:34
In England, we're moving towards St Michael's mount in Cornwall, which is a tidal island. So this means it's connected to the mainland at low tide, where you can walk on foot out to it, but it's submerged at high tide, so you need a boat to get to it at that point. These kind of islands, in general, were raided and easy targets when the tide was in because they were separated from the mainland and not everybody had a boat. The Vikings did not attack St Michael's mount, Cornwall. However, I visited a different tidal island in England on the East Coast, Lindisfarne Island, and they absolutely had been attacked by Vikings. Tidal islands are like not that common. I found it interesting that this English St Michael's mount Cornwall is also part of almost like a twinning in France of the Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, which is a church dedicated to Michael.
Janelle 09:47
Though both of them have this tidal Island twinning aspect to it, it's kind of interesting at St Michael's mount Cornwall Archangel Michael appeared to local fishermen during the fifth century to get the church built there,
Speaker 1 10:04
Janelle 10:04
whereas in France, St Michael appeared to a bishop and asked him to build the Abbey. In a lot of these different cases, Michael shows up. He's wanting the church built. He's doing what he needs to to get that done. Moving on to Italy, the next part of the line in Italy, Sacra de San Michelle. It was built on the site of ancient pagan worship, which is quite common for all of them. St Giovanni Vicenzo built the Abbey on Mount Pirchiriano after St Michael appeared to him urging the construction of the church on the mountain peak. And legend suggest that the materials were miraculously transported to the summit. I guess Michael really wanted that one done. He helped out.
Janelle 11:03
So continuing on in Italy to mount Gargano, whose location, like I said, before you know, was dedicated to pagan deities, Michael actually appeared there three times. He claimed the cave nearby was his to a bishop finally, there was a bull involved earlier, but we won't get into that. He basically said to the bishop, like, Hey, I'm going to claim the cave. And then in the second appearance of Michael, he agreed to secure a win during a battle. And they did indeed win that battle. Allegedly, there was a lot of like shaking and rolling going on in the mountain and lightning and very divine intervention for that battle. The third time Michael appeared was to relay a message that he had already consecrated the cave. There was no need for humans to do that, or not to enter his cave.
Janelle 12:10
Then we move into Greece for the Apollo part of this because Michael and Apollo are both known as Dragon slayers. The Apollo part of the line begins from Italy, entering Greece and then passing through Greece into Israel at Mount Carmel, the French researcher Jean Richer discovered the Apollo site alignments in Greece in the 1960s and then later extended the line across Europe to include the St Michael sites, so he was one of the first ones to figure out the Apollo alignment there.
Janelle 12:39
I'm talking about places I travel to. Personally, there are definitely other places on the line, but I feel the three places that I'm going to talk about are the most important ones to do, specifically with Apollo, because I'll tell you, it takes a long time to travel to each place. I mean, I was blessed to go to the three places that I did get to in Greece, I actually had to rent a car to drive to Delphi and lots of ferries and other things to get to some of the islands. The first one that we're going to talk about is the Delphi oracle of Apollo. I will recap my story a little bit. Apollo killed a guardian Dragon, and Zeus, his dad was mad at him and made him purify for this sin before he could overtake the Oracle. The Oracle is like a place of divination and prophecy, and then there's like an Athena temple that is close by in Delphi when I was there, so it the Athena Temple is just up the road from the Oracle, and it's a very powerful site as well. Athens is dedicated to Athena. I shared in Episode Six how Athena won the contest against Poseidon to become the patron of Athens by planting an olive tree, and Apollo's altar is in the cave under the Acropolis. The line comes through the Acropolis, which is a temple dedicated to Athena, but Apollo is right nearby, underneath in a cave that's dedicated to him. Delos is the third place that we're going to talk about today, and this is Apollo's birthplace. Athena has a temple there as well that I visited when I was on the island of Delos, and that was in 2023 I visited Athens, Delos, Delphi in Greece. You have to get to Delos on a ferry from Mykonos. And Delos is small, like it's only about five kilometers long. But I did want to talk about episode five of the podcast, which I talked a lot about the Oracle and Apollo. So if you want to check out Episode Five, if you haven't already, you could do that and learn more about that whole side of things. Two other places I want to talk about, just to finish the line, because we're on the latter part of the line before we get into more stories about Apollo. I did not travel to Simi. It's an island in Greece, but I want to mention it as this island has a monastery of Archangel Michael of panormitus, a major pilgrimage site, and it's built over the same site of a temple dedicated to Apollo. And this is where the two Michael and Apollo overlap in Greece, and then we have the end of the sword, which ends in Mount Carmel in Israel. So just to recap, you're looking at multiple places. You're looking all the way from Ireland, England, France, multiple places in Italy, and then you've got Greece, and then you've got Mount Carmel in Israel. We're gonna move on to Delos, and it's Apollo's origin story. So he had a titan mother, Leto, and Zeus was his father, and of course, Zeus was married to Hera. She was jealous of Leto. Well, I mean, she was jealous of a lot of women because there was a rape culture around Zeus, but she didn't like Leto because Zeus got her pregnant with twins.
Janelle 17:01
So in anger, Hera would not allow Leto to give birth on any land. Finally, Zeus brother Poseidon anchored Delos as it was previously a floating island for the divine birth, and Leto promised that Delos, that Apollo would build his great temple there, making it sacred, turning the rocky island into a place of worship, a place of great pilgrimage, and to bring prosperity to this Land, this five kilometers of land, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. Leto was understood as having been from Great Britain. So when she was pregnant, she traveled south to Delos from Great Britain, accompanied by wolves. I think she'd need more than wolves if Hera got a hold of her, but Stonehenge was apparently very sacred to Apollo. Word on the Street was Apollo would travel to Great Britain twice every year. There's like an established connection between the two places. At Delos, there are three crossings of the Apollo-Athena lines. The only other place in all of Europe that there are three crossings of these Earth currents is in Avebury in England. So there's another connection there, and Avebury is considered a great Neolithic serpent Temple, which I will dive into at a later date. But even though this is a nice story about Delos, along with many of the Greek islands, it was first occupied sometime during the third millennium BCE, so it functioned as a religious location and Sanctuary long, long before the Greeks decreed it to be the birthplace of Apollo. Another reason Delos was a major sacred site in ancient Greece was that the Delos oracle was second only to that of Delphi for Apollo. Because don't get me wrong, Zeus had a renowned Oracle in northern Greece at Dodana, but there were other famous oracles in Greece, but I'm sticking with just the ones dedicated to Apollo to keep it simple here, because Greek mythology can get very confusing. We're going to try to simplify it. Athens goal was to render Delos fit for proper worship of the gods. This came along with the Delphic Oracle ordered all dead bodies dug up and moved to another nearby island. And according to Wikipedia, it was decreed that no one should be allowed to either die or give birth on the island. Due to its sacred importance, no one was allowed to get sick, either just to add that in, they basically didn't want any sort of living or dying or in between. On the island, the Persians had attacked Greece, and they had decimated other surrounding islands near Delos. They had destroyed temples of the gods on those islands. But in the case of Delos, the Persians spared it because it was held in such high reverence by everybody around that time and place, they went as far as to forbid anchor in the harbor so no one could anchor in the harbor of Delos. And it was like the only thing standing after the Persians were done with it. I find that fascinating. It was special in the eyes of many people.
Janelle 21:18
My question from all of this, and I will continue asking similar questions as we go on, but did Archangel Michael really slay dragons on earth with his flaming sword? Or should the myth be understood as metaphorical rather than literal? Was he slaying or subduing dragon energy currents or lines at those locations versus actually killing real dragons? Similarly to how Apollo may have taken over the Delphic Oracle by slaying the dragon who was guarding it. It may not have been a literal slaying. What do you guys think you can let me know what you think of this, and I appreciate, I appreciate any of the comments.
Colleen 22:21
Hi, there, everyone, wherever you are in the world, welcome to the alighted way. Today, Janelle and I are just going to do a chit chat about her podcast that she just did. It's just us chatting about the podcast, me asking her questions, and her providing her wisdom and advice. How are you today Janelle?
Janelle 22:44
I am well, I'm good.
Colleen 22:48
We had some fun times. And right before recording this, some bagpipers and some people running around the house, to say the least. And it's, it's been, it's always interesting how we can get these things going. So, but now I want to talk about your episode 11 here, what we're talking about. So you're talking a lot about Archangel Michael and ley lines. And there was this part at the beginning, where you talk about the trip to Skellig, Michael, now there was, that is a trip I remember vividly. I remember, I think we tried two days in a row, something like that.
Janelle 23:36
I think we only had the one day to actually go out there, but yeah, I think because we chose to go to the gardens instead,.
Colleen 23:45
Yeah,
Janelle 23:46
Which was wonderful.
Colleen 23:48
Gardens turned out fantastic, yeah, but I remember just how devastated I felt go over to the island. I was so looking forward to that, but maybe not meant to be this time, maybe next time, we'll work on that.
Janelle 24:03
It was me just being curious, wanting to check them out. It wasn't like I was guided to go to a certain part on the line at that point in 2015 it was, it was more just my curiosity, wanting to experience the line.
Colleen 24:20
Yeah. And for me, it was like I really wanted to go, because archeologically speaking, I think it's a fascinating place. And with the beehive huts and the energy that the monks would have had there, I thought would have been a neat place to sit and meditate on. So it was, yes, I remember that bit well, but like you say, the gardens we ended up going to were fantastic. I thought they were beautiful, so I'm glad we did that too, and we were close, but no cigar like it's it's not that far off the coast. I know one day, one day, well, we're You talk a lot about ley lines, and one of the questions that came up with when you're standing on one of these sites, like along the Apollo and Michael line. Is there anything that shifts for you internally? Are you experiencing something energetic, symbolic, psychological? What does that feel like for you?
Janelle 25:33
Every time I've worked on the line or experienced the line, it absolutely changes you. And it's this partnership of you're there to help the line in any way that it needs helped. But the line is also very powerful unto itself. It's like this back and forth with energies, and it definitely changes you with each experience. It definitely has changed me.
Colleen 26:07
Do you have a certain process then that you go through once you're there, or is it you're there, you're focused on this energy and you're working with it?
Janelle 26:18
Yeah, you know, it's mainly you're there, you're focused on the energy, and it's different each time. So there's no set process, because each different part of the line needs something different from you. It's very individual. Each time you go and interact with the line.
Colleen 26:40
You don't really have any kind of physical feelings, per se?
Janelle 26:44
When you're dowsing, when you're locating things, and you have your your L rod, and the L rod senses and feels stuff before it hits your physical body, so it reacts faster to locate things like the line. When you're talking about physically feeling things, it's as you come into the line, the rod tells you that you've come into the line. It's like, woo hoo, you're here. I mean, there's, there's definitely, for me, there's lots of shifts within my heart space when I'm on the line and working with the line.
Colleen 27:24
Well, thank you for sharing that. I know I didn't know how personal this was going to get. That's good. You talk a lot about the mythologies in this episode. How do you personally navigate the line between myth as metaphor and myth as lived reality in your work with these sites?
Janelle 27:46
Ooh, that's a good question. It's a living energy. So whether you say that it's it's myth, it's a living thing unto itself. When you're working with the energy, you're tapping into something in that, in that moment in time, whereas the mythology just tends to add fragments of truth or little aspects to understanding it better or differently.
Colleen 28:15
Okay, I see with that like it's just kind of like a it gives you a little bit of background information, per se. And I think some of these myths, at some of their cores, they have something that transcends time so that that you'll come into and you'll feel those energies at that time, no matter what time.
Janelle 28:37
Yeah, it's not like the energies have ever really left, you know, like at a lot of these sacred sites, the energy is still there. It's still strong. It's still very powerful for people. I mean, that's why people make pilgrimages to them in droves, even to this day, because they can feel and sense that the energy is there to support them and to shift them.
Colleen 29:06
Well, that's interesting, because that leans nicely into my next question, which is from your perspective, do you think the alignment of these sites was intentionally engineered by ancient cultures or discovered and then ritualized over time?
Janelle 29:23
Oh, I think it was intentionally created. I think it's definitely it like every site that adds on to the next site that's in the alignment, it adds to the power of the line itself as a total piece of energy. It's like it accumulates and builds by being part of a total.
Colleen 29:49
Do you know the dates of when these sites have come into being? I guess is the word I don't know. Like are you able to see that pattern? Within these sites as you go along, like, is some sites older, younger along the way, or are they kind of like a mixture of sites?
Janelle 30:10
I would say it's a mixture, because a lot of things that were created way back when, of course, don't remain so it's like archeology. You'd know better than than I would on that. But it's like, you know, archeology, can, you know, dig up some of these ruins and, you know, they know something else is underneath, and an older building, you know, sometimes they're wooden, or other things that were there before. I mean, I would say overall, parts of the line were created at different times because it it would be a humongous job, like, even just in the Greek islands, to have all of the temples aligned in Greece is quite a feat.
Colleen 30:58
Okay, so I think I'm trying. I think I'm getting it in that it wasn't a linear kind speaking of lines. It wasn't really a linear development along the way. It was more like this area developed then this area developed and then this area over here developed. So it wasn't A to B to C or whatever.
Janelle 31:17
It wasn't like start, start at the line to,
Colleen 31:22
Yeah, exactly. Okay.
Janelle 31:23
That's so it wasn't like started the line to the finish up the line like all in sequential order. I don't think it was like that at all. I think some were definitely created before or after on a continuum.
Colleen 31:39
Okay, sorry. I was just trying to think of that's fascinating. How to look at that. Yeah, what do you think is at stake culturally or spiritually when older pagan sites are reinterpreted or overlaid by newer religious systems?
Janelle 31:57
I think it's interesting. What's coming to me is my grand master when in Feng Shui. So this is a Feng Shui reference, but there's many schools of Feng Shui, and so he would talk about how you need a good foundation in at least one of the feng shui schools. Like, learn it well, you know, experience it well, get what you need to get so that you have a firm foundation in it. And then it's not wrong to add in other schools on top other beliefs, other you know, other schools and their teachings. But it's like a layered effect. It seems similar in this case, so the foundation is definitely pagan, and then Christianity added a layer on top of the pagan sites. I see that as it's just part of the way things were changing and whoever was in power got to take over and try to convince pagans to become Christian. If you have Christian sites where there were pagan sites, it's a good incentive for pagans to come online with the new belief system.
Colleen 33:21
That's great. That's a really interesting perspective. Hadn't thought about it like that. If someone is skeptical of ley lines or dowsing, what's the most grounded or evidence based way, you'd invite them into understanding your perspective.
Janelle 33:36
It's fine to be skeptical. I think it's actually necessary to be skeptical. What amazes me is that people travel all over the world to go to sacred sites, to experience the energies that are there, like I was talking before about pilgrimages. So I mean, a lot of people do religious pilgrimages, and that's to be closer to God or Jesus or Mother Mary, or, you know, any of that entourage. And on this line, it's basically to be closer to Archangel Michael. And I know you, and I've talked about Archangel Michael in previous podcasts. I love Archangel Michael, and I find it fascinating, and that's part of what drew me to the work, was to experience this line that obviously he thought was important enough to appear before bishops and fishermen and all sorts of people to go, Hey, I want a church built here. I find the line fascinating in that aspect of it happened so many times, you know, like once, okay, twice, he shows up, you know. But. This is like a lot. And you know, I mean, in general, Archangel Michael has appeared lots of places around the world, and back to being skeptical. It's like it's good to be skeptical and just come and experience these sites for yourself and experience the energies that are there and have your own mystical, magical experiences with it. And that's okay, because that's your experience.
Colleen 35:32
Yeah, having the direct experience can really open you up, even if you're a skeptic.
Janelle 35:38
Yes, I do know to the heart of skeptics, if they if they have a magical experience, then they're like, Well, I don't know what that was, but right moving right along.
Colleen 35:47
And so one more thing, one more question I have, when we're looking at these landscapes, do you think we're projecting onto these landscapes, or that landscapes themselves are actively shaping human belief systems?
Janelle 36:12
Ooh, I think it's both. I think that as humans or as people, we have absolutely influenced landscapes. I mean, you and I were in Ireland, you know, Newgrange, or places like that, where there's mounds everywhere in Ireland and England, and those are human made.
Janelle 36:31
Yeah, right, yeah.
Janelle 36:33
So it's like, well, humans thought it was important to build something here to influence the landscape. But from a Feng Shui perspective, it's also very important to read the landscape and see what's there. So for instance, in China, they would look for dragons in the landscape. So if they saw a dragon that was like curled up as a mountain, they would go, Whoa, okay, that's a powerful site. And we'll see what needs to happen there. You know, masters in Feng Shui could find these places and go, Okay, that's noted. It's important, you know. And we'll see what needs to come out of it. But the land, the land talks to you, the land is alive,
Colleen 37:22
I 100% agree with that, yep,
Janelle 37:26
You know so it it basically works in partnership with humans to create things, yeah.
Colleen 37:38
Oh, very good. Okay, cool. Is there anything else you want to add to our discussion, or little chit chat today?
Janelle 37:47
No, I think I'm fairly complete on it.
Colleen 37:51
Yeah. Oh, good. Me too, me too. I'd like to thank everyone for listening, and I hope you got something from this catch you soon. I'll talk to you soon.
Colleen 38:01
There it is, and there you have it. Thank you for sharing and brightening the path today. Join us next time as Colleen interviews Edie and Edie's joy of discovering her dragon, or, should I say, the dragon discovering her. This episode drops May 28. We will continue to share and explore more stories that may take you beyond the edge of your boundaries. We encourage you to be open and come along for the wild ride. Safety first, though, so buckle up if you're interested in learning more about dragons, Janelle created an introductory dragon course that is now live. Go to thealightedway.com website to register. Become part of our community, or brood in Dragon speak and the magic that lies within. New Episodes drop twice monthly on Thursdays, so don't miss an episode. Until then keep the flame of curiosity burning.