{"id":9211,"date":"2017-07-18T20:50:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=9211"},"modified":"2017-07-20T01:52:39","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T01:52:39","slug":"a-strange-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/a-strange-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Strange ‘Castle’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the same vein as the arcane Georgia Monuments, upon which we’ve reported before [see here<\/a><\/span> and\u00a0here<\/a><\/span>],<\/em> is the so-called “Coral Castle” in southern Florida.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“So-called” because it isn’t really a castle so much as a strange assortment of monuments, many of them astronomical (half moon, Saturn) and megalithic, more like Stonehenge than Windsor.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Like the Georgia Monuments —<\/span>\u00a0as well as Stonehenge — there are alignments through which one can precisely spot the North Star and other celestial features.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A working sundial calibrated to noon of the Winter and Summer Solstice is so accurate it tells time within two minutes.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ImageThere are 1,100 tons<\/em> of coral limestone blocks here, and the chief mystery is how a fellow named Ed\u00a0Leedskalnin, who immigrated from Latvia, hand-carved and stacked the rocks by himself — for that’s what he did: cut them from a quarry with tremendous precision and lifted and moved them — at one point relocating the entire complex to a new spot ten miles away when he felt encroached upon by new developments in the Miami area.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>That relocation took him three years.\u00a0We’re talking three million pounds.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And he did it\u00a0alone<\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If that isn’t mysterious enough:<\/span>\u00a0Ed worked at night, by the illumination of large lanterns.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ImageThe entire complex took him from 1923 to 1951 to complete. This was a man who was just five-feet-tall and a bit over a hundred pounds!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How did he lift blocks that in some instances weigh up to 58 tons?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Here you get all kinds of fantastic speculation. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He levitated them, claim many. He was tapping into “ley” lines. He had come across a secret occult force.\u00a0It was the same thing that ancient Egyptians employed for the pyramids (and Druids for Stonehenge), say those who fancy exotic imaginings.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, the folklore:<\/span> school kids spying on him at night are said to have seen Ed singing to a block of stone and causing it to rise like a hydrogen balloon. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Magnetic secrets?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You get the picture.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Rubbish, say the more mundane:<\/span> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It was simply a matter of an obsessed fellow cleverly using winches, wedges, roller logs, tripods, and chain hoists, which make a block look like its floating as it’s lifted and which even a small man could operate, if he knew how to find the center of gravity of an object and position them.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It goes back and forth. The manager, Laura Maye (it is a tourist attraction), insists that tripods and hoists could not have been used because some blocks are higher than the tripods he did use (for some aspects of his work).\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"EdwardLeedskalnin.jpgIn all probability: the blocks of limestone were hoisted mechanically. Back in Latvia, after all, Ed’s family had been in the quarry business. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Probably, Ed\u00a0Leedskalnin, was simply an eccentric, brilliant, and certainly very patient man, on a strange mission, ostensibly to show his love for a young lady who once had jilted him. He certainly used hoists for aspects of it. This can be seen in rare photos and a bit of old film shot long ago, way back before video.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There are normal explanations.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, there is something that perhaps goes a bit deeper.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

The place is like an onion, the manager insists. One layer involves the history, another the mechanics, and then the “vibe.” <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

She claims there’s a spot where a person can stand and either experience extraordinary strength or unusual weakness, depending on if a gate there is closed.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We decided not to try it and never did enter the actual grounds.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Stuff can rub off, when we are too curious. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And this place reminds one of spots around the world that have an occult limning — not just the Georgia Monuments, Great Pyramids, and Stonehenge, but other sibylline wonders.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps this supposed strangeness is why it attracts New Agers: for Coral Castle used to have “Psychic Sunday” once a month, when two fortunetellers would set up shop in the gift store. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Just a marketing ploy?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It was one reason we decided not to bother entering.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

— M. H. Brown<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[Footnote:\u00a0Where a shrine in Key West is famous for keeping storms away, this “shrine” seems to have attracted one.\u00a0For when Hurricane Andrew swept across South Florida, it made a direct hit on Homestead — the city where the monuments are located — the eye moving precisely over Coral Castle (where, despite those tornadic winds, no monument budged).]\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

[resources: The Spirits Around Us<\/a><\/span>]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the same vein as the arcane Georgia Monuments, upon which we’ve reported before [see here and\u00a0here], is the so-called.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,39],"tags":[1073],"class_list":{"0":"post-9211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-commentary","7":"category-spiritual-warfare","8":"tag-coral-castle","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}