The Age of Reason on a Georgia Hill Map
From the first day this website was conceived, I’ve held a short list of places I have truly wanted to visit. And I have been crossing them off little by little. Standing alone at this point at the top of the list, was one place in particular. One place so curious and different from everything else Georgia has to offer. I drove by once in 2008 and was shooed away without a single photo. With its 30th anniversary looming this March 22, I made another pilgrimage and this time with success. The place is truly the Stonehenge of the New Americas, sitting just over two hours from Atlanta between the cities of Nuberg and Elberton. The place described is known as the Georgia Guidestones .
What they are is the invention of some secretive group who’s mission is unknown to us. They are an astronomically correct pile of granite slabs placed on a small hill in Elbert County. There are four slabs that serve as legs, one center piece, and a capstone. The entirety of it rises 20 feet high and weighs over 120 tons. But that, in itself is not the strange part: there is a message inscribed thereon.
The message has been called a New World Orders Ten Commandments. It has been called a message from the Antichrist. A popular theory attributes the authors as beings the secretive Rosicrucian sect. There have been calls to dismantle it. Yoko Ono quoted one of the rules on one of her albums. It contains 10 rules for living as a society as the authors saw fit. And I think its simply a message for post apocalyptic living. It the late 70’s, when the project was birthed, we sat in the middle of a Cold War with nuclear annihilation being a very real threat. We also were facing a potential food shortage, with mass starvations looming, only averted by significant advances in bioengineering of foodstuffs. In that context, the message seems reasonable as the monument itself suggests: “Let these be guidestones to an Age of Reason.” Given a post-catastrophic world, why not try to pass on some understanding of what we have learned so far?
The rules carved in Georgian granite are these:
Some fringe thinkers like to point to the first two as being a call to slaughter millions and a cry for Nazi-esque Eugenics. But neither takes into account the context. Some of these fringe thinkers have defaced the monument with right wing and anti-New World Order slogans. And they were dumb enough to sign it and leave website information, but you shouldn’t expect to much from simple, gullible minds. I tried to keep the profanity and vandalism out of the photos as best as I could, but you can see it if you visit the gallery.
Overall, I think the monument is well worth the 25 mile drive South on 77, if you are near Exit 177 (Elberton/Hartwell) on I-85, and have similar curiosities as me. It is now easy to get to with a small parking lot on Guidestones Drive. It is a place shrouded in mystery and secrecy. It is a beacon for the lunatic fringe, political and spiritual. But most profoundly it stands completely outside standard expectations of what populates the Georgia Landscape. You can read about the Guidestones history here .
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| From Georgia Guidestones |
From the first day this website was conceived, I’ve held a short list of places I have truly wanted to visit. And I have been crossing them off little by little. Standing alone at this point at the top of the list, was one place in particular. One place so curious and different from everything else Georgia has to offer. I drove by once in 2008 and was shooed away without a single photo. With its 30th anniversary looming this March 22, I made another pilgrimage and this time with success. The place is truly the Stonehenge of the New Americas, sitting just over two hours from Atlanta between the cities of Nuberg and Elberton. The place described is known as the Georgia Guidestones .
What they are is the invention of some secretive group who’s mission is unknown to us. They are an astronomically correct pile of granite slabs placed on a small hill in Elbert County. There are four slabs that serve as legs, one center piece, and a capstone. The entirety of it rises 20 feet high and weighs over 120 tons. But that, in itself is not the strange part: there is a message inscribed thereon.
The message has been called a New World Orders Ten Commandments. It has been called a message from the Antichrist. A popular theory attributes the authors as beings the secretive Rosicrucian sect. There have been calls to dismantle it. Yoko Ono quoted one of the rules on one of her albums. It contains 10 rules for living as a society as the authors saw fit. And I think its simply a message for post apocalyptic living. It the late 70’s, when the project was birthed, we sat in the middle of a Cold War with nuclear annihilation being a very real threat. We also were facing a potential food shortage, with mass starvations looming, only averted by significant advances in bioengineering of foodstuffs. In that context, the message seems reasonable as the monument itself suggests: “Let these be guidestones to an Age of Reason.” Given a post-catastrophic world, why not try to pass on some understanding of what we have learned so far?
The rules carved in Georgian granite are these:
- Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
- Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
- Unite humanity with a living new language.
- Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
- Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
- Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
- Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
- Balance personal rights with social duties.
- Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
- Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature
Some fringe thinkers like to point to the first two as being a call to slaughter millions and a cry for Nazi-esque Eugenics. But neither takes into account the context. Some of these fringe thinkers have defaced the monument with right wing and anti-New World Order slogans. And they were dumb enough to sign it and leave website information, but you shouldn’t expect to much from simple, gullible minds. I tried to keep the profanity and vandalism out of the photos as best as I could, but you can see it if you visit the gallery.
Overall, I think the monument is well worth the 25 mile drive South on 77, if you are near Exit 177 (Elberton/Hartwell) on I-85, and have similar curiosities as me. It is now easy to get to with a small parking lot on Guidestones Drive. It is a place shrouded in mystery and secrecy. It is a beacon for the lunatic fringe, political and spiritual. But most profoundly it stands completely outside standard expectations of what populates the Georgia Landscape. You can read about the Guidestones history here .
I was just there this afternoon! I posted a couple of my pictures and linked over to you!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you were able to find The GA Guidestones, I came across a interesting read concerning this landmark and thought of you and wanted to share it.. http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=58
ReplyDeleteCarie Nason
I saw that line that says:
ReplyDelete"R.C. Christian (A Pseudonyn)"
Noticed that the word pseudonym is spelled wrong. Apparently this was done on purpose, because these words make up the anagram
"untarnished conspiracy"
accident? I think not.