Dear eleventhsoul,
A warm welcome to the
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com forum, you contribution is very valid. I was in fact diligently investigating 'nine track' and who that might be, IBM did use a nine-track form of magnetic tape in the early sixties and I had thought it might have been a traveller who rode the railways, anyway I'll abandon that line of enquiry as you've moved adroitly on to a higher plane. Your book on holy places is most interesting as a project.
Anyway, I'm sure that your enquiry will elicit considerable response, however this is one British location I would launch into the mix for consideration.
The monastery of Lindisfarne resides on The Holy Island of Lindisfarne (known as Holy Island from the 11th Century) lies off the coast of Northumberland (historically Northumbria) in North East England. Founded by Irish monk Saint Aidan, it is regarded as one of the most spiritual locations in Great Britain.
Aidan was dispatched from Iona off the west coast of Scotland to Northumbria at the request of the then King Oswald. The priory, founded before the end of 634, stood as the sole seat of a bishopric in Northumbria for almost thirty years, and Aidan remained there until his death in 651. Finian (bishop 651–661) then erected a timber church deemed "suitable for a bishop's seat". However, St. Bede criticised the church for not being built of stone, merely hewn oak thatched with reeds. Eventually a later bishop, Eadbert removed the thatch and covered both walls and roof in lead. An abbot, who could be the bishop, was then elected by the brethren to lead the community.
“And let no one be surprised that, though we have said above that in this island of Lindisfarne, small as it is, there is found the seat of a bishop, now we say also that it is the home of an abbot and monks; for it actually is so. For one and the same dwelling-place of the servants of God holds both; and indeed all are monks. Aidan, who was the first bishop of this place, was a monk and always lived according to monastic rule together with all his followers. Hence all the bishops of that place up to the present time exercise their episcopal functions in such a way that the abbot, who they themselves have chosen by the advice of the brethren, rules the monastery; and all the priests, deacons, singers and readers and other ecclesiastical grades, together with the bishop himself, keep the monastic rule in all things.” St Bede
At some point in the early 700s the famous illuminated manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illustrated Latin copy of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, was in all probability created in Lindisfarne and the artist responsible believed to be Eadfrith, who was later to become Bishop of Lindisfarne (698–721). Much later in the second half of the 10th century a monk named Aldred added an Anglo-Saxon (Old English) twist to the Latin text, when he produced the earliest surviving Old English copies of the Gospels.
Remarkably, adding to the powerful sacred aura that already surrounds Lindisfarne, three ley lines (the mysterious lines of force between ancient monuments associated with spiritual and mystical energy based on the alignments of land forms) converge at Lindisfarne.
The primary ley line runs from prehistoric monument Stonehenge (construction starting circa 3000 BC and eventually opened 2000 BC) in Wiltshire in South West England, a significant interconnecting corridor of higher-power worship, which perhaps emphasises Lindisfarne’s long history as a major spiritual hub in Britain. Why select the island as the location in which to establish an important religious centre in the first instance unless it emanated the perfect balance and strength of spirituality?
Another line runs from Broomholm Priory, Bacton in Norfolk, eastern England.
While the final interconnect, although a short hop stretches from the Duddo Stone Circle, very close to the Scottish border in north Northumberland, one logical thought process is that when Aidan was sent to Lindisfarne from Scotland there was already an established mystical road map to follow. That is a theory on my part I hasten to add, but undoubtedly Holy Island qualifies as a strong candidate for inclusion in your book.
- Lindisfarne Priory in the Foreground