American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse  

Posted by Big Gav in , , , ,

Wired has an interesting tale about the "Georgia Guidestones", a mysterious artifact created in 1980 by an unknown group - American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse. With a bit more of an ominous spin this would have been good fodder for something like Rigorous Intuition in its heyday, with rumours that it was created by some Rosicrucian style group intent on reducing the human population and creating a New World Order. While there are some deep green groups (such as the Sea Shepherd crew) who, as the stones recommend, advocate cutting the population down to 500 million, I'm hoping that (if there really is a Rosicrucian conspiracy out there) Stewart Brand's view that 1970's style population fears were overblown (which I talk about in The Fat Man, The Population Bomb And The Green Revolution) prevails - and Brand strikes me as someone who would be a pretty good chance of being part of any reason based conspiracy if one did exist.

The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it's hard not to think immediately of England's Stonehenge or possibly the ominous monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Built in 1980, these pale gray rocks are quietly awaiting the end of the world as we know it.

Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground—which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars—and the "guides" themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and reflect a peculiar New Age ideology. Some are vaguely eugenic (guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity); others prescribe standard-issue hippie mysticism (prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite).

What's most widely agreed upon—based on the evidence available—is that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the dazed survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization. Not everyone is comfortable with this notion. A few days before I visited, the stones had been splattered with polyurethane and spray-painted with graffiti, including slogans like "Death to the new world order." This defacement was the first serious act of vandalism in the Guidestones' history, but it was hardly the first objection to their existence. In fact, for more than three decades this uncanny structure in the heart of the Bible Belt has been generating responses that range from enchantment to horror. Supporters (notable among them Yoko Ono) have praised the messages as a stirring call to rational thinking, akin to Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Opponents have attacked them as the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.

Whoever the anonymous architects of the Guidestones were, they knew what they were doing: The monument is a highly engineered structure that flawlessly tracks the sun. It also manages to engender endless fascination, thanks to a carefully orchestrated aura of mystery. And the stones have attracted plenty of devotees to defend against folks who would like them destroyed. Clearly, whoever had the monument placed here understood one thing very well: People prize what they don't understand at least as much as what they do.

The story of the Georgia Guidestones began on a Friday afternoon in June 1979, when an elegant gray-haired gentleman showed up in Elbert County, made his way to the offices of Elberton Granite Finishing, and introduced himself as Robert C. Christian. He claimed to represent "a small group of loyal Americans" who had been planning the installation of an unusually large and complex stone monument. Christian had come to Elberton—the county seat and the granite capital of the world—because he believed its quarries produced the finest stone on the planet. ...

The astrological specifications for the Guidestones were so complex that Fendley had to retain the services of an astronomer from the University of Georgia to help implement the design. The four outer stones were to be oriented based on the limits of the sun's yearly migration. The center column needed two precisely calibrated features: a hole through which the North Star would be visible at all times, and a slot that was to align with the position of the rising sun during the solstices and equinoxes. The principal component of the capstone was a 7\8-inch aperture through which a beam of sunlight would pass at noon each day, shining on the center stone to indicate the day of the year.

The main feature of the monument, though, would be the 10 dictates carved into both faces of the outer stones, in eight languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and Swahili. A mission statement of sorts (let these be guidestones to an age of reason) was also to be engraved on the sides of the capstone in Egyptian hieroglyphics, classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Babylonian cuneiform. The United Nations provided some of the translations (including those for the dead languages), which were stenciled onto the stones and etched with a sandblaster.

By early 1980, a bulldozer was scraping the Double 7 hilltop to bedrock, where five granite slabs serving as a foundation were laid out in a paddle-wheel design. A 100-foot-tall crane was used to lift the stones into place. Each of the outer rocks was 16 feet 4 inches high, 6 feet 6 inches wide, and 1 foot 7 inches thick. The center column was the same (except only half the width), and the capstone measured 9 feet 8 inches long, 6 feet 6 inches wide, and 1 foot 7 inches thick. Including the foundation stones, the monument's total weight was almost 240,000 pounds. Covered with sheets of black plastic in preparation for an unveiling on the vernal equinox, the Guidestones towered over the cattle that continued to graze beneath it at the approach of winter's end. ...

But many who read what was written on the stones were unsettled. Guide number one was, of course, the real stopper: maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. There were already 4.5 billion people on the planet, meaning eight out of nine had to go (today it would be closer to 12 out of 13). This instruction was echoed and expanded by tenet number two: guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity. It didn't take a great deal of imagination to draw an analogy to the practices of, among others, the Nazis. Guide number three instructed readers to unite humanity with a living new language. This sent a shiver up the spine of local ministers who knew that the Book of Revelations warned of a common tongue and a one-world government as the accomplishments of the Antichrist. Guide number four—rule passion—faith—tradition—and all things with tempered reason—was similarly threatening to Christians committed to the primacy of faith over all. The last six guides were homiletic by comparison. protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts. let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court. avoid petty laws and useless officials. balance personal rights with social duties. prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite. be not a cancer on the earth—leave room for nature—leave room for nature. ...

The mysterious story of R. C. Christian and the absence of information about the true meaning of the Guidestones was bound to become an irresistible draw for conspiracy theorists and "investigators" of all kinds. Not surprisingly, three decades later there is no shortage of observers rushing to fill the void with all sorts of explanations.

Among them is an activist named Mark Dice, author of a book called The Resistance Manifesto. In 2005, Dice (who was using a pseudonym of his own—"John Conner"—appropriated from the Terminator franchise's main character) began to demand that the Guidestones be "smashed into a million pieces." He claims that the monument has "a deep Satanic origin," a stance that has earned him plenty of coverage, both in print and on the Web. According to Dice, Christian was a high-ranking member of "a Luciferian secret society" at the forefront of the New World Order. "The elite are planning to develop successful life-extension technology in the next few decades that will nearly stop the aging process," Dice says, "and they fear that with the current population of Earth so high, the masses will be using resources that the elite want for themselves. The Guidestones are the New World Order's Ten Commandments. They're also a way for the elite to get a laugh at the expense of the uninformed masses, as their agenda stands as clear as day and the zombies don't even notice it." ...

Dice, of course, is far from the only person with a theory about the Guidestones. Jay Weidner, a former Seattle radio commentator turned erudite conspiracy hunter, has heavily invested time and energy into one of the most popular hypotheses. He argues that Christian and his associates were Rosicrucians, followers of the Order of the Rosy Cross, a secret society of mystics that originated in late medieval Germany and claim understanding of esoteric truths about nature, the universe, and the spiritual realm that have been concealed from ordinary people. Weidner considers the name R. C. Christian an homage to the legendary 14th-century founder of the Rosicrucians, a man first identified as Frater C.R.C. and later as Christian Rosenkreuz. Secrecy, Weidner notes, has been a hallmark of the Rosicrucians, a group that announced itself to the world in the early 17th century with a pair of anonymous manifestos that created a huge stir across Europe, despite the fact that no one was ever able to identify a single member. While the guides on the Georgia stones fly in the face of orthodox Christian eschatology, they conform quite well to the tenets of Rosicrucianism, which stress reason and endorse a harmonic relationship with nature.

Weidner also has a theory about the purpose of the Guidestones. An authority on the hermetic and alchemical traditions that spawned the Rosicrucians, he believes that for generations the group has been passing down knowledge of a solar cycle that climaxes every 13,000 years. During this culmination, outsize coronal mass ejections are supposed to devastate Earth. Meanwhile, the shadowy organization behind the Guidestones is now orchestrating a "planetary chaos," Weidner believes, that began with the recent collapse of the US financial system and will result eventually in major disruptions of oil and food supplies, mass riots, and ethnic wars worldwide, all leading up to the Big Event on December 21, 2012. "They want to get the population down," Weidner says, "and this is what they think will do it. The Guidestones are there to instruct the survivors."



9 comments

I think its pretty sinister. I think the people behind this are also behind spreading the Peak Oil and Climate Change memes. You guys in sites like this present Peak Oil and Climate Change as if it were a grass roots thing, but its origins are from Elite organizations like the Club of Rome. Depopulation has been a goal of groups like the Bilderbergs from its inception. The World Wildlife Fund was started by the same bunch, European Royalty and Bankers.

Daniel Quinn became popular when Ted Turner, the Billionaire Land Baron created a special literary award and gave him a half a million dollars and disbanded the award a year later.

The Ecological movement is not about altruism for the masses, its about getting rid of the masses and creating a paradise for the elite.

Sinister - well, most of it seems OK, but I agree the population doomer stuff is unpleasant.

As for peak oil and climate change, I'm not attempting to spread memes on behalf of some sinister elite bent on creating a paradise free of the masses.

Most (but not all) of the people and organisations who follow these issues genuinely are grassroots as far as I can tell.

You may be right that the memes were originally created by a Malthusian elite - but they can be used for many purposes - good as well as bad.

As I noted in the post, the fact that Stuart Brand is now trying to undo "overpopulation" meme is a good sign.

The ecological "movement" isn't a single amorphous entity, and a lot of greens do seem to be for the masses, not throwbacks to the old eco-fascist age...

Well, when there is manipulation going on, you can convert people to a cause and they will then spread the memes for free. The memes will no doubt mutate a bit. Elites in control of the conglomerated Media can then emphasize the memes they want and de-emphasize the ones they don't. Its like weeding and watering. I call it "meme gardening."

Quinn got watered. Al Gore is another example of refining the memes elites want. The film was pretty bogus.

All that needs to be agreed upon is the idea of an ecological crisis. A population crisis. A peak oil crisis. The Grass roots people can spread the crisis meme and debate endlessly about solutions all they want. The solution will be one of Centralized control. That's been the plan all along.

Once people have consensus on the problem Then they will accept the Orwellian, Centralized solutions.

The point is to make everyone afraid. Its NOT, to get people to design and implement solutions on the grass roots level.

Still most sites are about why this WON'T WORK and why that WON'T work. Its not about highlighting what works. There is very little of that.

So the meme garden is going according to plan and doing its job. Top down and to the grass roots level.

I don't have a problem with the "meme gardening" concept, but its worth keeping in mind that the media conglomerates aren't exactly prospering nowadays - people don't pay any near as much attention to them as they used to.

Its probably worth noting that these memes have been used by the bottom against the top as well as vice versa (think Brunner's "Sheep Look Up", for example, though he may have paid a price for that one).

I agree that we should focus on solutions and not endlessly concentrate on the wrong paths and the problems (and that's what I try to do, by and large, but I'll agree most don't).

Just out of curiosity, what's your view of Bucky Fuller and his modern day disciples like the Viridians ?

I have a positive opinion for the most part. I am more familiar with Bucky Fuller than Bruce Sterling but I am looking into it more. From what I understand The folks at "world changing" are the original Veridians. "Bright Green" movement etc.

Who I am not a fan of are The Club of Rome, Paul Erlich, the UN Earth Charter, Bilderbergs, World WildLife Fund etc. They want depopulation through engineered viruses and so forth. There is evidence they are orchestrating the current economic collapse and that the swine flu is a dress rehearsal. Just to give you an idea, in 2008 it was leaked that the Bilderbergers wanted to drop the price of oil from $140 a barrel to $40 a barrel in an attempt to bankrupt Hugo Chavez and other Latin American producers and that is what they did. These markets are constantly being manipulated. The top Share holder of Royal Dutch Shell as you may know is an actual Monarch. Queen Beatrix, top Bilderberger.

These are really really archaic people. They want World Feudalism. They have engineered the Environmental movement.

They have people working with the internet also. I am just showing historical precedent. The plan is to regulate the internet also.

These are the very same Great Pirates Bucky Spoke of.

They are still around but losing their grip. That is why they are fighting so hard for control.

The reason I don't believe we live in a closed thermodynamic system is spiritual. Its also related t Quantum physics. The pirates are unable to discern that as Bucky said.

Well - I don't think WorldChanging was founded until a couple of years after Bruce published his "Viridian Manifesto", but they were in the first wave of "bright green" web sites.

I've got an upcoming post that talks about how they came about in some detail.

As for the Club Of Rome (I won't dispute your view of the others) I agree that they are an elitist organisation, but I've often viewed Limits To Growth as being the most misunderstood book ever written.

Read this for my explanation :

http://anz.theoildrum.com/node/3572

Glad to hear you like / understand Bucky :-)

What I mean is the People that started World Changing were Veridians.

Erlich has advocated some shady stuff. Like putting stuff in the water to reduce population. Plus all his predictions were way off. Just like Kuntsler said the World would end at Y2K. Ted Turner has said he would like the see the Earth's population reduced by 95% Prince Phillip said he would like to be reincarnated as a virus to decimate the human population.

You could write them off as kooks if they weren't so powerful. There is a Bilderberg style club behind the WWF. Its called the 1001 club.

1001 Club.Various Bankers, Drug Smugglers, a brother of Osama Bin Laden, Royalty, basically what I call the "criminal overclass" are behind it. They want to use conservation as an excuse to grab land up and prevent development in the third world in order to maintain the balance of Power in the West. They have used these reserves in Africa as bases for military operations. Very often these same elites use them as hunting reserves and they often shoot indigenous people on sight and call them Poachers.

OK - look - Stewart Brand studied under Ehrlich and he is now saying population isn't a problem.

You are looking back instead of focusing on the present (where my post was oriented).

Also - please respond to my article on the Limits To Growth - if that represents COR thinking, do you really think they are evil ?

Finally, looking at some of your comments on Jeff's blog and your own re: world government, go back and read Fuller. He advocated world government - do you think he was good or not ?

Well, obviously weather or not a World Government is good or bad depends on what kind of a government it is. A Totalitarian Fascist Dictatorship which microchips the populace would be bad.

Its shaping up to look like this:

A group of Elite Central Bankers, European Royalty and Corporate Technocrats at the top followed by a Psychopathic warrior caste of Black Ops secret police as the enforcers of the regime, followed by everyone else as the serfs.

minus about about 3/4 of the serfs, through depopulation.

Hopefully these are just the people who will build it and then the good people of the World can transform it into something humane.

That was Bucky's view of history. I think there is something too that. Does that mean, though, that I should support Black Ops carrying out false flags attacks on America and the Bildebergs?

I read your article. I think these "scenarios" are more active in nature. More like agendas. Its more like black magic. Like making an enormous sigil.

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