John Michell — The View Over Atlantis / The New View Over Atlantis — chapter list and summaries

Working copies of source PDFs and plain-text extracts live in ~/dev/wget/michell/ (see INDEX.md there). Summaries below are from those extracts; they are descriptive, not endorsements of every historical or metrological claim.

Edition A — The View Over Atlantis (Ballantine Books, Nov. 1972 US printing; arrangement with Garnstone Press)

Source file: Internet Archive–derived PDF (the view over atlantis -- john michell -- 1972 -- garnstone press…pdf), 292 pages. The imprint page in the scan reads Ballantine / first printing November 1972; copyright © Michell 1969.

Structure: Preface · Part One (3 chapters) · Part Two (7 chapters) · Part Three (essay, titled Sacred Engineering — not subdivided into numbered chapters in the body).

Part One: The Lines

Ch.	Title	Summary
1	The Old Straight Track	Introduces Alfred Watkins and the “ley” idea: alignments of ancient sites, churches, mounds, and boundaries; aerial photography and crop marks; argument that a deliberate prehistoric terrestrial geometry once organized the British landscape.
2	Paths of the Dragon	Extends alignments to Chinese geomancy (dragon pulse / magnetic language), imperial ritual axes, and comparative “auspicious” siting; connects English place-name and hill folklore to the same class of landscape reading.
3	The Serpent Power	Broadest scale: a worldwide pattern of megaliths, pyramids, and tracks (cites diffusionist writers such as W.J. Perry); presents prehistory as a unified scientific-spiritual civil program rather than isolated local “forts.”

Part Two: The Instruments

Ch.	Title	Summary
1	Gematria, the Literary Science	Number mysticism: Pythagorean and cabalistic tradition; Greek/Hebrew letter-values; New Testament names as number codes; bridge from literary number to monument dimensions (Pyramid, Stonehenge) as “text.”
2	The Great Pyramid	Classic pyramidology: Piazzi Smyth, ratios, π and Earth measures, casing and sockets; monument as indestructible coded repository of a lost metrological science.
3	Woodhenge	Aerial discovery of post-holes; Mercury magic-square geometry; explicit parallel drawn to the Great Pyramid’s planetary numerology.
4	The Order of Art and Science Seen in a Flash	Alexander Thom’s geometry, magic squares, alphabets as sacred number; Druids, Greek connections, Hyperborea tropes.
5	Stonehenge and Glastonbury	Stonehenge as solar calculator (Hawkins etc.); geometric and alignment ties between Stonehenge, Glastonbury Abbey, and Christian-era continuators of landscape religion.
6	The Alchemical Fusion	666 + 1080 → 1746 and related gematria; “fusion” of terrestrial and celestial number in gospel names and landscape diagrams.
7	The Astrological Garden	Earth as organism with “nerve centres” at sacred sites; formal gardens and planned cities as microcosmic mirrors; Vitruvius and early modern ideal city plans.

Part Three: Sacred Engineering

Single closing section (not numbered as a chapter in the same way). Themes: telluric / magnetic “favoured places” (Carnac, Tara, Chartres mound); Great Pyramid as world magnetic centre after a cataclysm (Atlantis trope); Caviglia living in the Pyramid; Paul Brunton’s King’s Chamber visionary account; lights and sounds at the Pyramid; misuse of solar energy and Atlantis destruction; long Druid training; continuity of mystery schools.

Edition B — The New View Over Atlantis (Thames & Hudson; this scan: US 1995 printing, ISBN 0-500-27312-X)

Source file: The new view over Atlantis … 1995 … pdf, 228 pages. Copyright page: fully revised edition first published London 1983; US 1995.

Michell states in the preface that Part Two was almost entirely rewritten after City of Revelation and Ancient Metrology; Part One (leys) stayed largely as first written.

Structure: Preface · Part One Landscape (chs. 1–3) · Part Two Number (chs. 4–7). Old Part Three material is folded into Chapter Seven (Sacred Engineering).

Ch.	Title	Summary
1	The Old Straight Track	Same thematic core as Edition A Part One Ch.1; TOC also lists subsections (e.g. landscape “giant,” astronomers’ lines).
2	Paths of the Dragon	Parallel to Edition A Ch.2; subsections on dragons and dragon-slayers.
3	The Serpent Power	Parallel to Edition A Ch.3; adds subsections (e.g. earth spirit, Americas, “ley consciousness”).
4	Number and Measure	Merged successor to old Part Two opening + pyramid + woodhenge material: canonical numbers (5040, 666, etc.), McClain-style music–number, Stonehenge measures, Great Pyramid facts and “golden tip,” magic squares and planetary associations.
5	The Grain of Mustard Seed	Alchemical–gospel reading: pyramid as fire/tetrahedron seed; mustard-seed parable tied to Greek gematria and apex symbolism.
6	Glastonbury	Concentrated Glastonbury–Stonehenge sacred geography (patterns on the floor, New Jerusalem, astrological garden subthemes).
7	Sacred Engineering	Substantially the old Part Three: telluric centres, Chartres, Brunton, Pyramid lights, Atlantis cautionary tale, initiation.

Quick cross-edition map

Topic	Edition A (1972)	Edition B (1983/1995)
Leys / Watkins	Part One, chs. 1–3	Part One, chs. 1–3 (lightly updated)
Pyramid numerology + Woodhenge	Separate chs. 2–3 in Part Two	Integrated into ch. 4 (+ mustard seed ch. 5)
Stonehenge + Glastonbury	Ch. 5 (+ threads elsewhere)	Ch. 6 + ch. 4
Closing “sacred engineering” / Brunton / Chartres	Part Three	Ch. 7