The Galaxy on Earth: A Travelers Guide to the Planets Visionary Geography (Paperback)

by Richard Leviton (Author) "When it comes to understanding and interacting with the mysteries of the Earth and its holy sites, everyone has an equal opportunity and open invitation..." (more)
Key Phrases: geomantic matrix, geomythic landscape, geomythic figure, Landscape Zodiac, Tree of Life, Ray Masters (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Sacred tourism—travel to sites known to have powerful Earth energies or great religious, mystical, or mythological significance—is increasingly popular. But how do visitors even begin to understand what such places are all about, much less tap into the sacred energy, the sense of power, pervading them? Richard Leviton brings together a wealth of information from diverse sources in this unique guide to 50 visionary landmarks: their physical descriptions, history and archaeology, myths and legends, and reports of mystical experiences by actual travelers. Furthermore, Leviton reveals a startling correlation between the energy structures that make up our galaxy, the sacred sites on Earth, and the fundamental structures of consciousness of every human being!

Leviton for the first time not only explains why sacred sites have an effect on human consciousness, but shows how myth, correctly interpreted through metaphysical insight, can be the key to experiencing the sacred energy of a site. The Galaxy on Earth is the one book that today’s sacred travelers and ecotourists should not leave home without.

From the Publisher
The key is, as above, so below, and in the middle, too.

That phrase may mean nothing to you now. By the time you have gotten halfway through this book, you will be hard put to believe it was not always obvious to you. You will see the world differently, and will experience yourself differently. Indeed, it would not be too much to say that this book provides you a way—regardless whether you travel widely, occasionally, or not at all—to become more fully yourself, and to see the world truly for the first time.

The ideas in this book can change your life, as they have changed mine. My friend Charles Sides mentioned in his preface that he and I went to Machu Picchu together. What he did not mention is that when we climbed Huena Picchu, the mountain that towers over the city, we went through an old tunnel and found ourselves looking across the Urubamba River at the wonderful mountain of Putucusi. I had carried with me a printed version of a meditation that Richard had led me though at Monticello (another sacred site) some months before. I pulled out that piece of paper and led Charles through it, with remarkable results that made believers of us both.

That meditation is included in this book, and it is part of the passport Richard provides you. It’s a passport that is sorely needed. For five centuries, since the Renaissance, we in the West have been held captive by the mistaken idea that the material world is all that is real. That idea has traveled world-wide, and holds almost every culture in thrall, even as the West begins, slowly, sluggishly, to shake it off.

There is death in that idea. Nations can die of it. Civilizations can die of it. Just possibly, the world could die of it. Clearly, individuals can. And, oddly, many people who think of themselves as religious are as firmly entrapped in this perceptual materialism as are the militant atheists. For it is not so different to say, on the one hand, "this world is all there is," and to say, on the other hand, "there is another world, a spiritual world, but it is separate from this one."

It is true, this world is paralleled by the Other Side. But it is also true that this world, this material reality, is as holy as anywhere else. The question is, can you perceive it? Can you learn to perceive it? And what would happen to you when you did?

In The Galaxy on Earth, Richard Leviton sketches the world’s hidden reality. He provides instructions on how to experience this reality first-hand. And he grounds esoteric knowledge in mythology, history, and travelers’ impressions, which opens new links to portions of our cultural heritage that have been forgotten or mis-read.

That’s a lot to accomplish in one book. And of the things he accomplished, I am quite sure that providing a key to personal experience is the greatest. Indeed, one day while I was editing this book, I called him up and said, "I feel like I have been living in the presence of angels all day." It was a wonderful experience, one I hope you experience as well.

—Frank DeMarco, chairman
Hampton Roads Publishing Co., Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 577 pages
• Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing Company (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571742220
• ISBN-13: 978-1571742223
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #602,372 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A potential breakthrough in geomancy, November 16, 2003

By	Palden Jenkins (Glastonbury, England) - See all my reviews

I found this book very interesting. It attempts what many would regard as impossible or inadvisable - a kind of classification of the different kinds of subtle, subjective energy-qualities of a selection of 56 global-scale sacred sites. This is a minefield into which few would care tread, but I think Leviton has trodden well, and doesn't fall into the quicksands.

It is difficult to try to objectivise subjective impressions - the archetypal impressions one can gain when visiting an ancient site. From his own observations, and from the histories of the sites he has chosen, Leviton has identified specific threads of energy-quality pervading these sites - a system he then applies throughout the book. He has traced these threads through different sites, establishing the energy-connections between them.

This is a subjective work which can be verified only by the subjective agreement of other students of geomancy (or what he calls 'visionary geography'). Yet I think the author has done well, all things considered. His is one of the best perceptions of the particular sacred site where I live - Glastonbury - and the other sites he covers that I personally know are also quite well worked out. I think this book holds up quite well, therefore. The histories and traditions he gives of each site are interesting too, and well researched.

It's the kind of book you keep for ongoing reference. His idea that the stars of the celestial realm are specifically reflected here on Earth in ancient sites is not new, but I haven't seen this systematically and globally applied before. He has created classes of subtle energy - such as Mithraeum, Labyrinth, Lucifer Binding Site or Cosmic Egg - which I find possible to take in and work with, and translate into my own terms.

Altogether, an interesting book. If you're interested in sacred sites and the subtle energy-grid of the Earth - areas of research which will take decades to make sense of - then this is a good starting place. Leviton has done a lot of work and mulling with this book - seminal inasmuch as it deserves to start a small movement of people further researching this important area of geomancy.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tourist Guide to Spiritual Energy, December 3, 2002

By	ETX (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Galaxy on Earth: A Traveler's Guide to the Planet's Visionary Geography (Hampton Roads, 2002, 577 pages) is an unusual new book with a very Hermetic interpretation of sacred sites. According to the author, the Earth's landscape is an interactive living copy of both the cosmos and the spiritual nature of the human and is has an integral part to play in the spiritual transformation of the planet and its people. This book is a tourist guide to the Earth's spiritual energy with important revelations on how to access and benefit from that energy.
"We live," says the author, "on a planet where gods and myths are alive in the landscape, and visions of the spiritual world and mystical experiences are abundant. It is all part of the Earth's multi-layered spiritual body. Think of it as the esoteric side of the Gaia Hypothesis, as Gaia's secret galactic life." The book looks at 57 holy sites around the Earth and shows how historical, archeological, mystical, and mythic facts and attributions are clues to a site's geomantic nature, Hermetic signature, and mode of use. All such sites are holy and numinous, but not for the same reasons, and the author explains why in the book. He also explains that the geomantic and energy structures - let's call them subtle but interactive temples - found at these sites can be classified into at least 45 different types. Each type of energy structure has a different and predictable effect on consciousness and can be used as part of a self-directed initiatory process independent of any religious or spiritual dogma. Further, the author shows that these 45 geomantic features correspond to equivalent structures in the spiritual worlds and in the overall human constitution. These equivalencies put one in immediate and effortless resonance with these sites. This is in accordance with the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so Below," and to which the author would add: "and in the Middle too." This means the archetypes of the spiritual world (Above) are mirrored in the organization of the human (Below) and in the Earth's visionary geography. The spiritual terrain of sacred sites gives us a galaxy on Earth to tap into and use for our own alchemical transformation.