Highgate Cemetery, London.
This gothic graveyard is a favorite haunt of satanists, witches and vampire slayers. The ‘Egyptian Avenue’, pictured here, was built to help sell tombs to affluent Londoners who had become enamoured with Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamen. The famous ‘Highgate Vampire’ was ‘exorcised’ in the 1970’s in a tomb at the end of the avenue, by the priest Sean Manchester.

Highgate Cemetery, London.
Most are unaware that their family may have relatives buried in Highgate Cemetery, as records were poor in Victorian England, and thus shrubbery overruns almost all of the tombs, creating an atmosphere that is unique and foreboding.

Magic Square, Bhutan.
Magic Squares are found in all sorts of places, such as churches and places of higher learning. Rows of numbers in every direction add up to the same total – a mathematical anomaly. But Magic Squares represent many things, such as this one, painted in a Bhutanese temple.

Monk’s Hands, Nepal.
Mediation involves discipline, technique and practice. This monk carried his inner peace like a child holds a blanket; nightly, with innocence, never letting go.

Grail Castle, Spain.
The monastery of San Juan de la Peña in Aragon, Spain is far and away the best candidate for the historical  ‘Munsalvaesche’ of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, home of the Grail King, King Alfonso I, and the repository - at least for a while – of the Holy Grail itself.

Relief of Lazarus, Spain.
This provocative column relief from San Juan de la Peña, Spain, contains an exquisite carving of the resurrection of Lazarus that subtly highlights the number 6, referencing Osiris, the sixth god in the Egyptian pantheon and the god of resurrection. It also reveals much, much more (to be elaborated on in a future article).

Girona Cathedral, Catalonia, Spain.
At night, Saint Mary’s cathedral in Girona casts an ominous glow that dominates the skyline. City of secrets, indeed.

Montségur, French Pyrenees.
The site of an earlier fortress that served as the last stronghold of the Cathars who willingly faced death by fire rather than renounce their faith, near this very spot.

Tour Magdala, Rennes-le-Chateau, French Pyrenees.
Is there any greater icon in the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau than the ‘Tower of the Magdalene’, with its 22 steps leading to a window that points at an offset of 22 degrees to a cave in the distance known as ‘the burial site of Mary Magdalene’ (whose feast day is 22nd of July)?

Church of Mary Magdalene, Rennes-le-Chateau.
The statue of the Cathar God Rex Mundi is one of the most evocative images to greet a visitor in a church, and its exquisitely carved hand is especially haunting.

Arcadia, Greece.
The most famous incarnation of Arcadia is ancient Greece, rendering the arcane Latin expression, ‘Et in Arcadia ego’, which roughly translates as ‘Even I, Death, am in Arcadia’. In 2007 Arcadia burned, and death was truly, sadly, all over the land.

Wewelsburg Castle, Germany.
This 17th century castle was restored by the Nazi Heinrich Himmler, the ‘SS Leader of the Realm’. This is the floor of the beehive-shaped ritual centre he constructed beneath the triangular shaped complex, and where the most secretive of rituals were conducted.

Ancient tin mine, Cornwall, England.
“And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen? And did the Countenance Divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, among these dark Satanic mills?” William Blake – Jerusalem

Crowland, England.
‘Trinity Bridge’, built between 1360 and 1390, is one of England’s greatest mysteries, built to span two water ways, but dedicated to an unknown figure. Just who could it be?

Green Man Festival, Hastings, England.
Green Man festivals are part of the rites of spring in England, and this particular one, in the seaside town of Hastings, is the daddy of them all.

Maypole Dancing, England.
The springtime Maypole dance is one of the great pagan traditions to have survived from ancient times. Its reenactment is life affirming, magical and sweet.

Crop Circles, Avebury, England.
Has the crop circles phenomenon been investigated properly? Why do circle makers see rapid moving balls of lights in the fields they are grooming? This crop circle runs for hundreds of yards and is framed by Hebrew letters on one side and Sanskrit on the other. Not bad for a night's work in the dark.

The Bogeyman, Longleat, England.
The legend of the ‘Bogeyman’ is well documented, but did you know it is based on the legend of ‘Bogley’, an evil entity that lives in a round barrow in the Wiltshire countryside?

Glastonbury, England.
Glastonbury Tor, as seen from the tree that sprung from the staff of Christ’s uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. Clippings from the tree, which blooms every December 25th, are presented to the Queen.