John Michell, Radical Traditionalism and the Myth of Sacred England
by Marleen Thaler, University of Graz
Forthcoming, February 2026
The English writer, self-proclaimed radical Traditionalist, and esoteric theorist John Michell (1933–2009) influenced esotericists, New Agers, and contemporary Pagans with his theory of “Sacred Place”. Through books such as The Flying Saucer Vision (1967) and The View over Atlantis (1969), he aimed to re-sanctify the English landscape, and to launch a revived Golden Age with Glastonbury as the point of departure.
In Michell’s cosmology, the concept of the Heavenly City is reified by a triumvirate of the lost Atlantis, contemporary Glastonbury, and the prospective New Jerusalem. His millenarian vision continues a longstanding tradition of attributing spiritual qualities to Glastonbury, notably integrating sacred geometry and numerology. Ronald Hutton described The View over Atlantis as “almost the founding document of the modern earth mysteries movement.”
Albion’s Sage for the New Age explores and
contextualizes sacred place and nature theories within the frame of alternative religious groups to support an analysis of Michell’s Sacred Place Theory. The book also elaborates on specific topics such as the contemporary religious current of nature religion, and the British Earth Mystery Movement.Additionally, it examines the reception of Michell’s ideas within the “greener” segment of the European New Right and within the American “alternative right”.
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