Simulacra: Faces and Figures in Nature

by John Michell

This remarkable book is intended to reassure those who see faces and figures in trees, rocks, clouds and damp stains on walls. These simulacra, or shadowy likenesses to familiar objects, have fascinated artists and mystics from the earliest times, and every one of us has at some point been astonished to find a human face staring out from a piece of rock or timber. This book contains an astonishing collection of photographs, assembled by the author over many years, illustrating the figurative sculptures and art works of nature, and reveals the interplay between nature and the human imagination in the creation of the world as we know it.

Paperback

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

John Frederick Carden Michell was an English writer whose key sources of inspiration were Plato and Charles Fort. His 1969 volume The View Over Atlantis has been described as probably the most influential book in the history of the hippy/underground movement and one that had far-reaching effects on the study of strange phenomena: it "put ley lines on the map, re-enchanted the British landscape and made Glastonbury the capital of the New Age."

In some 40-odd titles over five decades he examined, often in pioneering style, such topics as sacred geometry, earth mysteries, geomancy, gematria, archaeoastronomy, metrology, euphonics, simulacra and sacred sites, as well as Fortean phenomena. An abiding preoccupation was the Shakespeare authorship question. His Who Wrote Shakespeare? (1996) was reckoned by The Washington Post "the best overview yet of the authorship question."

Reviews

[Harry Whitewolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why is this one of the most important books ever written? I ain't tellin'. You'd think I was mad.