Another Name Change to the Blog- the Why-With-All
The readers of the blog may notice I have changed the name of the blog again--- sort of an homage to the original title, "Ceremonial Stoneworks of the NorthEast." The title now reads: "Native Ceremonial Stoneworks, Great Ireland, Mud Fossils, Giants, & Atlantis In New England." And of course, I have still included a mention of the Viking's "Vinland" in the sub-header of the description of the blog. Although the exploits of Leif Erickson and the concept of a Vinland in New England is fascinating, (the Scandinavian ancestors on my mother's side of the family had the last name Erickson, so how can I not like those legends and bread crumbs of evidence), what is probably most significant is the ancient spiritual legacy of the American Indian, which is a subject of inquiry that many non-native people have a very dim understanding, or absolutely no understanding, of. And to the best of my knowledge, there is SOME Native American ancestry in my family. This has been verified by ancestral records-- however, this is sort of a "lost" ancestry of the Howes family, and the last time an ancestor in my family line would have been considered an "Indian" was well over 200 years ago, in the 1790's/ turn of the 19th century. And the designation would have been "North Carolina Indian". I think the family line was the "May" family, somebody of which married into the 'Howes' line some generations back. Other than that I have Scandinavian ancestors who came to the US in the early 20th century, as well as a Scottish, English and French Canadian family line. There has been no verification of a Native ancestor on my mother's side from the Quebec region other than a family legend and 'hearsay'. Maybe it is true, but my mother's side of the family does not strike me as Native, no tell-tale signs of a hidden Native ancestry- there could be another explanation such as an Acadian ancestor (distinct from other French Canadians) or some such thing. What I do know is that the "North Carolina Indian" ancestry on my father's side can be verified through old records. My mother's family has lived in the Boston/ Providence area since the turn of the 20th century.
With all that being said.... I was literally born in the town of Holliston, MA. Since my parents faith was that of Christian Science (not to be confused with another religion known as Scientology), I was not born in a hospital, but in my home-town- Christian Scientist's typically don't go to a doctor's, and people outside of the religion usually describe the doctrine of Christian Science as "metaphysical" although I have not really heard anybody in the Christian Science (CS) community describe it quite this way. My father was a Vietnam War Veteran but he never wanted to talk much about it. He would much rather share a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tape with us boys during a car ride and take us out for chicken wings or a movie after doing landscape work in the yard on a Saturday.
I first went to the Upton, MA. Stone Chamber when I first heard about it when I was 18 or 19 years old (2002-2003.) I am now 36, and have been researching the subject in some way ever since. It is very well known among the antiquarian research community that the towns of Upton, Hopkinton, Milford, Holliston, Medway, Ashland, Mendon, etc., are chock-full of ancient stone ruins in the woods. The first thing to probably understand is that there was a significant Algonquian Indian presence in this area- Ponkapoag, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, etc. They were all loosely related but distinct bands and tribes of Native people. The daily life of the Native American in pre-colonial times was largely spiritual- or rather, there was a spiritual component to their daily lifestyles. They also perceived the world as animated with nature spirits. This is actually a true thing. Who could deny the animating power of a strong wind that can knock a tree down, for instance. So yes, Native people in this region did construct ceremonial stone monuments. Some of these features are/may be burials. Other features are "prayer seats" used for vision quest. Other features are simply prayers to the Great Spirit, or Catontoit, or some lesser nature deity, while some monuments may even be small open-air temples. Other features of a Native origin may even symbolize a great serpent (stone rows), which is the trade-mark symbol of the expression for the telluric current of the universe. This is an expression of the living earth itself- I think Gnostic researcher John Lamb Lash expresses this perfectly in his re-construction of the Gnostic narrative of the fall of the Wisdom Goddess, Sophia (basically a spiraling telluric current/ life-force from the pleromic core of the spiral arms of the galaxy, which shot out of the core and materialized as our planet- Lash even cites modern astronomical data and findings to back up his research. His book, Not In His Image- Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief is well worth a read.) These Native American serpent stone rows are also the same expression as a Tibetan/ Chinese dragon, and what the Australian aborigines call the "rainbow serpent."
With all that being said, there is also evidence and room that an ancient Celtic people once settled the area of New England. Some of their predecessors, the Sea People, who sailed the ancient trade routes of the British Isles, Mediterranean and Near East certainly had navigated to the Americas before. See Cyrus Gordon's book "Before Colombus" under the chapter "the testimony of the Greek authors." These ancient Celts of the British Isles, who were a pre-Christian people, dressed in animal skins and erected stone monuments, etc., were made war upon as far back as almost 2,000 years ago by the war campaigns of Julius Caesar. The New England stone chambers and some other stone ruins are of this ancient lost Celtic origin. For more on the New England Celts, see my previous post from March 15, 2021. This does not and should not negate the fact that ancient American Indian people also built stone monuments in their areas for their own purposes. In fact, lately on Peter Waksman's Rock Piles blog, he has featured many stone ruin sites of a probable Native American origin from different provinces in Canada. They look like the same style as ours in SouthEastern New England. The inference is obvious- that in these particular cases, we are looking at American Indian stone ruins. In fact, certain New England Native American descendants have gone up to different areas of Canada to re-learn some of their lost traditions (not necessarily related to stone sites, but in general). Here is a link to some of Peter Waksman's "Recent Canadian Rock Piles Posts" .
I have said it before and I will say it again- your mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open. The evidence that an Atlantis existed is a legitimate possibility- see some of my older posts. Read what may be available to you at a local booksellers- something current- such as "America Before" or "Fingerprint of the Gods" by Graham Hancock for instance to get a sense that a lost world-wide civilization once existed, and was lost in a deluge (references to which exist in the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian Bible.) In my next blog post, I hope to take the reader on a journey to New Boston, New Hampshire, where some of the best evidence for the existence of Mud Fossils exist. Stay tuned!
