Stapehill

This awe-inspiring ceremony was expressly designed to bestow regal power and religious authority upon the new sovereign. Every element within this ancient ritual has a sacred and symbolic meaning.

Robert Stephenson is a qualified City of London guide and has taught on alternative London for twenty years. He is the Chairman of the Research Into Lost Knowledge Organisation.

www.dorsetmysteries.org

The Glastonbury Zodiac was first discovered by Katherine Maltwood in the 1920's and many people have explored and written about this landscape phenomenon. For one year a group of us did a ceremony at a well or spring in each of the zodiac signs at dark moon, when the moon and the sun were in that zodiac sign, thus linking earth, sun and moon. Out of this came an exploration of the third eye points of the zodiac.

A presentation looking at the Mystery Tradition of Ancient Egypt. A look at the ancient Egyptian Gods and what they represent. Other aspects of Egyptian symbolism explained in terms of psychology and spiritual philosophy.

www.dorsetmysteries.org

Amongst the many carvings peering down at you from church doorways and castle walls you may one day encounter a figure to inspire feelings of shock, disgust, confusion and more than a little intrigue. Brazenly displaying all their assets, these unusual carvings known as sheela-na-gigs have mystified scholars and inspired artists for centuries. But what they are and why are they there in some of the last places you'd expect to see an image that could arguably be considered lewd, is still very much open to debate.

Gobekli Tepe is the oldest complex of stone circles and sanctuaries anywhere in the world. At 11,500 years old it was apparently built in SE Turkey at the end of the last Ice Age by simple hunter-gatherers. Yet some of its megalithic structures contain blocks as much as 15 tonnes a piece, with a height of 5.5 metres. Who really built this monument, and why?

This illustrated talk will describe the activities of the resurrectionists in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The proliferation of anatomy schools during this period created a huge demand for dead bodies on which to practice dissection. Unfortunately most of these corpses were supplied by unscrupulous individuals prepared to violate fresh graves for the considerable profits involved.