My first visit to Glastonbury was in the late summer of 1986. I had been
bicycling for a year throughout western and Mediterranean Europe in search
of stone circles, holy wells of the Earth goddess, and Gothic cathedrals.
All the while I had felt a powerful yearning to visit the region and village
of Glastonbury. It felt as if the place was mysteriously exerting a magnetic
attraction upon both my mind and heart. The closer I came, the more my
dreams and imaginations were filled with images of dragons, fairy kingdoms,
and Arthurian legends. Upon reaching England, I hastened southwest toward
the region of Somerset. Nearing Glastonbury, cycling through emerald green
valleys shrouded in fog, it seemed I was entering a magical kingdom. Miles
ahead in the distance the great hill known as the Tor loomed high above the
ethereal mists and all the world below. It appeared, as it had been long
ago, an island jutting skyward from an inland sea.
The earliest knowledge we have of the Tor come to us from legends. In
prehistoric times the island peak was believed to be the home of Gwyn ap
Nudd, the Lord of the spirit world of Annwn. Immortalized in folklore, Gwyn
ap Nudd became a Fairy King and his realm of Annwn the mystic isle and
sacred mount of Avalon. Long a holy place of pagan spirituality, the 170
meter tall hill shows extensive signs of being contoured by human hands in
Neolithic times. These contours, indistinct after the passage of thousands
of years, mark the course of a spiraling labyrinth, which encircles the hill
from base to peak. Ancient myths and folk legends suggest that pilgrims to
the sacred island would moor their boats upon the shore and, entering the
great landscape labyrinth, begin their long ascent to the hilltop shrine. By
following the intricate and winding route of the labyrinth, rather than
ascending by a more direct line, a deep attunement with the Tor's
concentrated terrestrial and celestial energies was achieved.
Archaeologists are prone to dismiss such legends as nothing but fanciful
myths of preliterate people. A wealth of studies, however, by folklorists,
dowsers and other earth mystery researchers suggest that these mythic images
may in fact be the dim memories of long forgotten realities. In the mid
1960's, for example, the brilliant scholar of English antiquities, John
Michell, found evidence of an alignment of Neolithic sacred sites in the
Glastonbury region. The Tor was linked with such venerable ancient holy
places as Avebury stone rings and St.Michael's Mount. More recent research
by Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst, featured in their book The Sun and the
Serpent, has revealed this enigmatic alignment runs all across southern
England linking hundreds of Neolithic, Celtic and early Christian sacred
places.
Miller and Broadhurst have brought to light other matters of great
importance. Laboriously dowsing the entire alignment over a period of years,
they discovered there are actually two distinct lines of energy - roughly
parallel to one another - flowing for nearly 300 miles. Because of the large
number of St.Michael and St.Mary churches situated upon the lines, these
energy pathways have been dubbed the St.Michael and St.Mary lines. While the
lines are of far greater antiquity than Christianity, it is not entirely
inappropriate to have given them such Christian names. St.Michael, or more
properly the Archangel Michael, is traditionally regarded as an angel of
light, the revealer of mysteries and the guide to the other world. Each of
these qualities are in fact attributes of other earlier divinities that
Michael supplanted. Frequently shown spearing dragons, St.Michael is widely
recognized by scholars of mythology to be the Christian successor to pagan
gods such as the Egyptian Thoth, the Greek Hermes, the Roman Mercury and the
Celtic Bel. Mercury and Hermes were considered guardians of the elemental
powers of the earth spirit, whose mysterious forces were sometimes
represented by serpents and linear currents of dragon energy. Along these
dragon lines were highly charged power places - the serpent's dens and
dragon's lairs of prehistoric myths - whose locations archaic geomancers had
marked with spear-like standing stones, cave temples, and hilltop
sanctuaries. Thousands of years later, as Christianity began its relentless
spread through pagan Europe, St.Michael shrines were placed at these sites
and the dragon-slaying Archangel became a symbol of the Christian
suppression of the old religions.
As
Miller and Broadhurst continued their dowsing research, following the
Michael and Mary energy lines to and up the sides of the Tor, they made a
remarkable discovery. The two lines appeared to mirror the ancient landscape
labyrinth as it winds its serpentine way to the summit. Even more
astonishing, the two lines move in a sort of harmony with one another and,
at the very peak, interpenetrate as if they are ritually mating. The female,
yin or Mary energy line encloses the masculine, yang or Michael energy in
the form of a double-lipped cup. It is a most evocative image. The
configuration of the Mary energy line, containing the phallus-like mediaeval
tower of St.Michael, seems to portray a chalice or grail and is thus a
potent symbol of the alchemical fusion of universal opposites.
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Cover of the Chalice Well, with
Vesica, Pisces, Glastonbury, England. photo credit,
SacredSites.co |
Descending the Tor, the Michael and Mary lines pass precisely through
other key sites in Glastonbury's sacred geography. Primary among these are
the Chalice Well, Glastonbury Abbey, and Wearyall Hill. A study of the myths
and legends of these places will reveal more associations with that mystical
vessel, the Holy Grail. The story is fascinating. According to old Cornish
legends, Christ's uncle, Joseph of Arimathaea, was a tin merchant who traded
with miners on Britain's western coasts. On one of his trading journeys he
brought along his nephew, the boy Jesus, and together they made a pilgrimage
to the Holy Isle of Avalon. Years later, following the Crucifixion, Joseph
returned to Avalon and moored his boat on Wearyall Hill. There he planted
his staff in the ground, where it took root and blossomed into the Holy
Thorn whose descendant is still growing on the hill today. On the site below
this hill Joseph built a small church, believed to be first Christian
foundation in Britain. From the Holy Land Joseph had brought the cup used at
the Last Supper, which held the blood of Christ that dripped from the Cross.
This most sacred of objects, the Holy Grail, is said to have been buried
with the body of Joseph on Chalice Hill, which lies between the Tor and the
site of Abbey.
Near the center of Glastonbury town stand the ruins of the old Abbey, once
the greatest monastery of medieval Europe. In the heart of the Abbey, a
St.Mary Chapel marks the exact site where Joseph set his original church.
Analysis of the ground plan of the St.Mary chapel reveals proportions of
sacred geometry equal to those found at nearby Stonehenge, and a ley line
running through the axis of the Abbey runs straight to that famous stone
ring, indicating a connection between the two holy places in deep antiquity.
During the Christian era large numbers of pilgrims flocked to the Abbey to
venerate the relics of saints and sages, some of the most valued relics
being those of St.Patrick who ended his days at Glastonbury in 461 AD
(Patrick, the much loved ‘saint’ of Ireland is not actually Irish but was
born in England and later captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery
there). In 1539 the Abbey was closed by order of King Henry VIII and the
great monastery fell into ruins. Before the closure of the Abbey, monks hid
the vast wealth of relics, manuscripts, and other treasures within tunnels
and caverns beneath Glastonbury Tor. Legends say these hidden treasures will
one day be revealed, ushering an age of peace and enlightenment into the
world.
The
Glastonbury region and its Abbey also have strong associations with
Arthurian legends and the quest for the Holy Grail. In 1190 AD, following a
fire which destroyed much of the Abbey, the dramatic discovery was made of
two ancient oak coffins buried sixteen feet beneath the ground. Contained
within the coffins were the bones of a large man and a woman, and an
inscribed cross identifying the bodies as those of King Arthur, whose
traditional burial place was Avalon, and Queen Guinevere. Centuries old
texts in the Abbey library describe the adventures of King Arthur and his
knights between Avalon and nearby Cadbury Castle, where stood Arthur's court
of Camelot. More recent research has lent further credibility to the ancient
association of Glastonbury with Arthurian legend. In 1929 an artist, Kathryn
Maltwood, discovered evidence of a group of enormous earth figures molded on
the landscape across ten miles of Somerset. These figures, delineated by
natural features of the earth and further contoured by human design, have
been interpreted as scenes from Arthurian legends based on astrological
patterns. While it is now known that the figures long predate the historical
period of King Arthur (500 AD), their presence hints at archaic wisdom
teachings encoded in the very hills and valleys of mother earth.
Perhaps the most intriguing of all Glastonbury's mysteries are the strange
balls of colored lights frequently seen spiraling around the Tor. In 1970, a
local police officer reported seeing eight egg-shaped objects "dark maroon
in color, hovering in formation over the hill" and in 1980 a witness saw
"several green and mauve lights hovering around the tower, some smaller than
others, about the size of beach balls and footballs. One hovered outside the
east facing window". This author spent one summer night sleeping within the
tower and, waking from a dream of castles and magical beings, found the
interior of the tower radiantly aglow with a luminous white light.
Glastonbury, the mystic isle of Avalon is truly an enchanted place. A sacred
site since time immemorial, it is often forgotten but always rediscovered.
Today a major haven for pilgrims and spiritual seekers, Glastonbury is a
power place of potent transformational energies.
More. For
those readers desiring more detailed studies of Glastonbury and its
environs, consult New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury, by John
Michell, and The Isle of Avalon: Sacred Mysteries of Arthur and Glastonbury,
by Nicholas Mann. Web Site
Martin Gray is an
anthropologist and photographer specializing in the study of sacred sites
and pilgrimage traditions around the world. Traveling as a pilgrim, Martin
spent twenty years, visiting and photographing over 1000 sacred sites in
eighty countries. Web Site
