Georgia Guidestones – Elberton Georgia
Traveling Life’s Highways can take you to some interesting places. Several years before leaving Atlanta for Alaska in 1995, I discovered a unique and interesting scene in a field near Elberton, Georgia. Recently I returned for another look along the rolling hills of farmland which are the normal views one usually sees while driving in the area along Georgia Highway 77 (Hartwell Highway). On one of the windswept hilltops just outside Elberton stands an unexpected granite monument. The monument is alternately referred to as The Georgia Guidestones, or the American Stonehenge.
Georgia Guidestones
I still cannot believe in the time I lived in Alaska over the last twenty years the Guidestones are still relatively unknown to people I talk to. It is not the typical tourist location but probably is in the same category as the world’s largest ball of twine (Cawker City KS, Hwy 24 west of Topeka Kansas) or largest frying pan (Rose Hill, North Carolina). I have seen the ball of twine but not the frying pan, which is still on my bucket list.
Placido Flamingo in front of Guidestones
Elberton isn't called the 'Granite Capital of the World' for nothing. It sits atop a granite deposit 35 miles long, six miles wide and three miles deep. Alaska had many earthquakes while I lived there and if there was ever going to be an earthquake or natural disaster in Georgia, I'd want to be right here atop six million tons of solid stone.
The origin of that strange monument is shrouded in mystery because no one knows the true identity of the man, or men, who commissioned its construction. All that is known for certain is that in June 1979, a well-dressed, articulate stranger visited the office of the Elberton Granite Finishing Company and announced that he wanted to build an edifice to transmit a message to mankind. He identified himself as R. C. Christian, but it soon became apparent that was not his real name. He said that he represented a group of men who wanted to offer direction to humanity, but to date, almost four decades later, no one knows who R. C. Christian really was, or the names of those he represented.
Several things are apparent. The messages engraved on the Georgia Guidestones deal with four major fields: (1) Governance and the establishment of a world government, (2) Population and reproduction control, (3) The environment and man's relationship to nature, and (4) Spirituality.
Engraved in eight different languages on the four giant stones that support the common capstone are 10 Guides, or commandments. Though relatively unknown to most people, it is an important link to many conspiracy theories that dominate the world in which we live. The stranger wanted a Stonehenge built -- he had a model of it in a shoe box -- and had selected the area because it was remote and it offered good granite. Mr. Christian reportedly left $50,000 in a local bank, told the locals that they would never see him again, and vanished forever. Following Mr. Christian's detailed instructions, the company erected what are now known as The Georgia Guidestones, four granite monoliths, each nineteen feet tall.
Guidestones layout
The main cluster was completed on March 22, 1980, using granite quarried from nearby Elberton. One slab stands in the center, with four arranged around it. A capstone lies on top of the five slabs, which are astronomically aligned. An additional stone tablet, which is set in the ground a short distance to the west of the structure, provides some notes on the history and purpose of the Guidestones.
On the top stone, carved on the four sides in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Babylonian Cuneiform, it says: "Let these be Guidestones to an Age of Reason." On the upright slabs, Ten Commandments are carved for the coming "Age of Reason," encouraging visitors to "unite humanity."
Age of Reason
A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.
10 axioms that are on the stones
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity
3. Unite humanity with a living new language
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials
8. Balance personal rights with social duties
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite
10. Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature
Close-up of Stones Axioms
I found the placement of the languages on the stones interesting. There was a lot of thought given to the message and the cultures represented on the stones. Several had the language of an “opposite” culture on its reverse side.
There are many theories and thoughts about the mysteries surrounding the Guidestones. Is it a new world order or the commandments for the anti-Christ? Who knows but its message in many ways is an outline for a safer world, giving others a chance, protecting our environment and controlling our population so as not to destroy our natural resources.
The “Message of the Georgia Guidestones” seems to call for at least 90% of the Earth’s population to be wiped out. The passage about maintaining humanity at a population of a half-billion or less would require a massive dying-off of humanity the likes of which we’ve never seen. This is what has led many conspiracy theorists to allege that whoever financed the Guidestones, they are in cahoots with an evil New World Order project to extensively depopulate the planet. Since the Georgia Guidestones were built in 1979, at the height of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union that many thought would inevitably result in a nuclear apocalypse, writers such as Brad Meltzer suggests that the Guidestones were meant to be seen by that war’s survivors, at which point the world’s population would already be below a half-billion. (https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2018/08/27-bizarre-facts-about-the-georgia-guidestones/)
“I want people to know about the stones ... We're headed toward a world where we might blow ourselves up and maybe the globe will not exist ... it's a nice time to reaffirm ourselves, knowing all the beautiful things that are in this country and the Georgia Stones symbolize that.” – Yoko Ono (http://www.radioliberty.com/stones.htm)
Guidestones at Sunset
Placido Flamingo enjoyed his visit to The Georgia Guidestones. It is another unique and thought provoking place along our journey Traveling Life’s Highways.
Getting there: The monument stands at an approximate elevation of 750 feet above sea level, about 90 miles east of Atlanta, 45 miles from Athens, Georgia and 9 miles north of the center of the city of Elberton along Georgia Highway 77.