In this, the second episode of my conversation with the astro-archeologist Dr. John Grigsby, we sit down and chat in more detail about the subjects we share an interest in. The movement of our ancestors from equatorial Africa across the world, the ‘lunarchy’ they lived in (time being based on a monthly rather than annual cycle) which tantalisingly perhaps explains why they existed in matrilineal groups where women were said to be ‘married to the moon’, how an Indo-European proto-mythology might have spread and can be seen surfacing thousands of years later with astonishing similarities in cultures as far apart as Britain and Egypt. Why many if not most of the the neolithic monuments we see across the landscape in Britain are not in fact oriented towards the sun but to celestial movements in the heavens that are no longer visible to us today because of the phenomenon of ‘precession’ (so the the stars appear to move above and below the horizon over thousands of years). The Celtic ‘otherworld’, how henges are built with ditches around them, not to keep who and what was inside the henge safe, but to protect the world outside from what was within because of their numinous connection to rebirth and death. Synchronicities, coincidences and the field of meaning that is entangled with the physical world our ancient ancestors seemed to understand far better than we do.
It’s a wonderful romp through so many subjects and I very much hope you enjoy it.
This is the tenth episode of my Do Lectures Radio Series Where To Next? A new episode is released every Monday. The week after each episode is aired I put it up here on my Substack to create a series archive for those who discover it in the future and want to go back to the start, and for those who want to re-listen to the wisdom of my guests that does seems to bloom on a second and third listening. That has been the case for me, anyway. This episode was first broadcast on DO Radio on November 3rd 2025. As always, please share it with anyone you think might find it illuminating!
Much love,
Dan
