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Photo Journal of our 1990 Trip To Wales Day 3 By Rhuddlwm Gawr |
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Photo Journal of our 1990 Trip To Wales Day 3 By Rhuddlwm Gawr |
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Click Here for the Secret of the Nature of the Holy Grail.
GLASTONBURY
We want to mention the Gothic Image again, which was one of the most interesting shops we had the great fortune to visit in Glastonbury. They are both occult bookshop and publisher. They were open 9am - 6pm Mon-Sat and 10am-5.30pm Sunday. They are located at 7 The High Street, Glastonbury, Somerset.
GLASTONBURY TOR
It was really amazing. We parked our car at the base of the Tor and walked up along the sacred pathway which circles around the Tor. We stood in the chapel on the top of the Tor and felt the continuous wind blowing straight through the base. There are two doors which face each other and both of them are open. Fantastic Wind. Always blowing. Just as the Chalice Well spring is always flowing. For the pilgrim, the landscape of Avalon is a treasure trove where sacred sites abound. The most obvious to the visitor is Glastonbury Tor which can be seen from a great distance rising enigmatically above the flat Summerland meadows.There are many myths and legends associated with the Tor - it is the home of Gwyn ap Nudd, the Lord of the Underworld, and a place where the fairy folk live. Over the last few years there has been discussion about the significance of the terracing of the Tor. It was proposed first by Geoffrey Russell and then expanded on by Geoffrey Ashe, the well-known Arthurian scholar, that the terracing on the slopes of Glastonbury Tor is the remains of a great three-dimensional neolithic labyrinth, a ceremonial way dedicated to the ancient British Goddess.
Whether it will ever be proved that the labyrinth was constructed in the neolithic era or not, is a matter for future archeology, but since it was first suggested, many thousands of people have walked it in a sacred manner. And this is no mean feat since it takes from 4-6 hours to walk in and out of the labyrinth. It provides the perfect setting for a present day ceremonial journey whether it was or not in the past. The Tor is now owned and cared for by the National Trust and there is free access to the public at all times.
GLASTONBURY ZODIACThe Glastonbury Zodiac is an astrological configuration in a great landscape circle 10 miles across. The 12+1 zodiac signs appear to be formed by hills and outlined by roads and rivers. Katherine Maltwood who discovered this great circle in the 1930's, claimed it was the original Round Table in Avalon with Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin and the Chief Knights still seated about it as the signs of the Zodiac and the seasons of the year. A great hound five miles long, the Girt Dog of Langport, guards this star temple. Several local legends and about 100 place-names, like Wagg on the Dog's tail, Earlake Moor on his ear, hint that these effigies were once well known. You will find Aries at Street, the Phoenix of Aquarius rises from Glastonbury Tor, and the circle continues around the Isle of Avalon.
Glastonbury is not only a repository of history and mythology, It's unique identity remains alive and functioning, potent with the power of transformation. In 1983, Andrew Collins, author of "From the Ashes of Angels" "The Circle Makers" and "The seventh Sword", was led by psychic colleagues to the Glastonbury Zodiac. By all normal criteria of investigation, it simply does not exist. Even by the standards of the most current Earth Mysteries research, it is nonsense. Nonetheless Andrew was prepared to accept it's reality as a hypothesis to see what followed.
Two years of investigation and experience led him finally to an extraordinary culmination when, in June 1985, he found himself alone in the Glastonbury landscape dissolving the barriers of reality. Having thrown himself into the Baltonsborough Flights weir, risking drowning when the river was in full flood through torrential rain, having gone a dangerously long time without sleep, he finally saw the Ship of solomon sailing across the summerland sea as a physical reality. He actually climbed on board! what followed was the greatest experience of his life.
In June 1990, Andrew decided to take a small group of people around the zodiac in a 3 day intensive using his personal material as a basis. You had to prepare for it thoroughly. It was recommended that you read all the classic works on Glastonbury and generally saturating yourself in the Avalonian myths. This idea of a vision quest brought forth a deep emotional response. Eventually at dawn on the third day, the team found themselves at a place somewhere in the centre of the Zodiac, having had virtually no sleep since day one. Their minds were filled to exhaustion with endless visualisations and many strange experience at innumerable sites. There Andrew guided them through the imagery that had led up to the fulfilment of his own Quest in 1985. He stopped at his final jumping off point to leave them free to experience their own personal vision. What follows is his imagery/experience followed by one of the team, which was generated by it and the whole three days of intensity.
Andrew spoke: "I am on solomon's ship steered by a gold and black robed figure, who is Solomon and Merlin in one. Nine Grail maidens, blinking in and out of reality, surround a copper cauldron of Annwn on the deck. A male and female lie on a plinth. Out of the sea emerges, more than 1,000ft tall, a three sided aquamarine coloured pyramid of water. This is entered on the boat and as it's barrier is crossed, the boat imagery vanishes, although the feeling of being on it remains.
"There's just a vertical pillar of light with me. Three shafts of horizontal, pulsing lightning - orange fire - shoot towards a common source - one through me, marking my path; two to my right - otherwise all is darkness. The goal is Sarras, the land of the Grail. The source of the three bolts is a faint red glow. It emerges as a sunrise. The boat is just a light source. Light in the void of darkness. Darkness recedes as the source comes nearer. Passing now into light. A void of gold orange. I'm still moving. Now the white dove, heading to the orange gold centre point. From its wings and back flow three white light rays of three divine tones. It lands. The bird vanishes. Now I'm in a centre point of solid orange mass which is large and triangular. There are pillars of light at each corner. Red, emerald, green, white. Each pillar contains a grail maiden. The one in the red pillar has a copper Grail chalice. Green has a silver chalice. White has gold. The pillars vanish. The women approach centre drifting through golden light. They blend into one larger whte lady with a huge Grail. She is asked who the Grail serves (you'll have to meet her yourself to find oiut). She vapourises into a column of light. It moves towards me to encompass me. All other imagery now gone.
"Below, a brief vision of a rose. Now, O'm spiralling down a vortex. Above is the bird of earlier on. Spirit. It comes down and lands through me. Suddenly, I'm in a crystal lattice. Thousands of triangular shaped facets. Looking at them, I see myself reflected in each, then the visions change into the past of the zodiac and potential futures. The crystal fades into a void. I can hear a low tonal humming drone, and then with it, tow other notes medium and higher. A round me are blobs of light. Everything stops. There is a deep red humming light directly in front. Now entering/joining it. Back to primal creation. The point where all minds are one. All is one in this and other universes and dimensions. "
Another speaks: "l then saw a Glastonbury solstice dawn, symbolic dawn, dawn of the Aquarian age, new Aeon, New Age. Mists of Avalon rising from the ground, vaporising into the air as they roll across the land. The Tor. The Abbey. Chalice Well. A hum, like organ music, gently but powerfully rising. A sense of the Abbey's perpetual choir. Voices joining the choir, and on this new turn of the time spiral, new voices join the monks of the Celtic Church. There are native Amercian and Indian intonations. Bells at first sounding Christian, but then reverberating Tibetan style sound a background.
"This dawn will bring greater awakening, and what we've done - our vision quest, purging and purifying ourselves, traversing the Zodiac in set sequence - we're in the same dawn, adding a tone to the great choir, an old tone that was known before, added again, but different in the way it relates to the greater whole as this is a new era. What we've done, whatever individuals may or may not have got from it, has contributed to the rising choir.
"Glastonbury is waking - now the Tor, a glass isle, a hollow hill, filled with elements, ancestors, faery folk - vast angelic forms - Watchers of Avalon - are on guard. The monks of the Company of Avalon are smiling, as the Abbey/Chalice Well current is absorbed into the beat of the Avalonian phoenix - the fire heart rising with the sun.
"In underground tunnels beneath the town, through the whole ground, the great humming sounds and all around in sleep are the dreamers - all the mystics of Glastonbury - and because of all these people and us and what we've done, the choir sings louder and the inner bodies of those with right intentions are responding/resonating - messages are being left deep inside. They are all singers of the song, though they carry different notes, different lines of the song, and the more and the further they spread the notes and different lines of the song, the more people may start to hear the whole song, and as they gather at places like Glastonbury, the whole song will be heard more and more, louder and louder. We must resonate together and a part of our task is to prepare again the tuning forks of stone and wind chimes of water that are the energy matrix of Britain.
"A hundreth monkey point will come in this process: the more it happens, the less anyone can do to stop it and at the quantum leap point - bang! - we're there - we're everywhere. It's all true. All that the visionaries have ever said of Glastonbury. It really is all true."
In July 1992, a series of magical, mystical events led several people to perform a ritual on the Tor at the time of the Egyptian rising of Sirus, to bring it's energies in the form of Isis into the Glastonbury Zodiac through the Aquarian phoenix. That date turned out to be that of a major follow up to the Harmonic Convergence. The participants arrived late on a saturday night and went immediately about their work. The next morning, sleeping at a camp site, some stirred at dawn, to feel a vibration coming up through the ground. A great hum. One person felt they wanted to get up and run to the Tor, but was too tired. Late the same day, they saw on a noticeboard that a mass Om was intended to be sounded from the Tor at dawn. Somehow they had clearly felt it. Glastonbury pilgrims, it's all waiting for you here!
HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON GLASTONBURY TOR
PRE-CELTIC
Some flint tools are found, a greenstone axehead buried on top of a hill was probably
votive offering. The terraces around the Tor may have been set up as a labyrinth for some
sacred purpose - no proof as no terrace has been excavated or dated. No evidence of stones
or structures at top of Tor.
CELTIC TIMES
Few finds were made in the early period - some small finds were made in the Roman
occupation period (the Romans used Glastonbury as a focus of several trade routes and may
have had an agricultural centre, like a villa near the present Abbey site). After the
Romans left, the hill was settled by a small group of people in rough huts during the
period around 450-55 AD. These were probably Celtic hermits but could have been a small
garrison for one of the local Celtic kings.
SAXON TIMES
In the late Seventh century the newly Christianised Saxons took Glastonbury and upgraded
the Christian settlement there. The earliest Abbey remains date from this time, and the
Tor was settled by Saxon monks or hermits, two small cells, a possible chapel and a
cross-head were found.
MEDIEVAL TIMES
The Tor top was levelled at some point in the Tenth or Eleventh century to build a large
stone church. This removed much archaeological evidence. In 1275 this church was felled by
an earthquake. It was rebuilt smaller in 1323 and lasted until the death of the
Abbey at Henry VIII's hands in 1539. The church was
quarried for stone.
MODERN TIMES
The tower was repaired this century and is now in the hands of the National Trust.
Thousands visit it every year for as many reasons!
 This is the town of Glastonbury with the tor in the background. |
This is an aerial view of Glastonbury Tor
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 We started out walking to the top from here. |
 We're slightly closer. |
 It's just over the next rise, gasp! |
We're Almost There! |
 A plaque inside the chapel |
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CHALICE WELL
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AVEBURY
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SILBURY
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WEST KENNETT
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SANCTUARY
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BATH
Bath England, The Circus |
| We visited bath as the last stop in England before crossing the Severn
Bridge into Wales. The temple and baths were built around 65 to 75 AD. They formed one of the finest structures in Roman Britain. A stone reservoir was built around the sacred spring to collect the hot water and feed it to the baths. The reservoir was in the corner of a courtyard and the center of this courtyard was a classic temple to Sulis Minerva. There is a wooden model that shows things as they were in Roman times. It was called Aquae Sulis and the temple and baths were built in the center of the Roman town. All Roman towns had a temple and bathhouse, but Bath was different - it was greater and considered a source of healing. Over a period of 300 years, the sacred spring was roofed over and new buildings were added to the temple and the baths became more elaborate. The temple was not only a place for worship and sacrifice, it was a place for curses. Over a hundred curses have been removed from the springs. People with a complaint about someone would write out a curse and throw it into the water. One is written thusly: "Dos Emettis has lost two gloves. He asks that the person who has stolen them should lose his mind and his eyes in a temple where she appoints." Another says: "To Minerva, the goddess of Sulis, the thief who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether slave or free, whether man or woman, is not to buy back this gift unless with his own blood." Offerings were made to the goddess in the way of coins, libations, oils, all kinds of things. Over 12,000 Roman coins were found in the spring spanning the entire period of occupation of Britain from 1st to late 4th century. The bottom of the bath is mud covered with 4 inches of concrete and then 45 plates of lead melded together. It is this construction that allowed this particular bath to have lasted so long. Only four baths remain of the Roman period in the entire world. The bath at Bath is the nicest. What seems amazing is that the Romans had baths and sewers when later societies had neither. Every Roman took a bath every day, whether freeman, slave or servant. The baths were very sophisticated, with a heating system and successively hotter and cooler water baths as well, that performed different functions. First you would take off your clothes and be rubbed with hot oil and take a hot, steaming bath. Then you would move to cooler and cooler waters. The hot oil and steam would help cleanse your body; your sweat would bring up the impurities to the surface of your skin and pores. Then you were scraped down in order to remove the oil and sweat. Women traditionally took their baths in the morning and men in the afternoon; they eventually had to pass laws preventing men and women bathing together, although historians are sure there were plenty of assignations going on. The original baths went undiscovered for hundreds and hundreds of years after the Romans left and the roof caved in. As mentioned earlier, newer baths were built in the Georgian era, when Bath went through a renaissance of sorts. These original baths were not discovered until the turn of the 1900's. We have been asked to mention Arkania Bookshop which has two floors of books, jewelery, sacred objects and all the rest. Open 7 days a week. Mon-Sat 10-6pm. Sun 12-5pm. 17 Union Passage, Bath, Avon BA1 1RE. Tel: (01225) 461687. |
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| We drove past the Bath cathedral above and late in the morning we crossed into Wales at the Severn bridge. SEVERN We are now officialy in Wales because we've passed the "Welcome to Wales" sign. The map and road signs now have names in both Welsh and English, and we are making remarkable time.
TINTERN ABBEY We drove along the Wye valley to Tintern Abbey, where we stopped and visited the fantastic ruins.
MONMOUTH CASTLE
RAGLAN CASTLE
CASTLE HOTEL We then continued on to Trecastle for three nights. We stayed at the Castle Hotel (Food was 4 star, accomodations were 4 star, service was 4 star, Beer was 5 star) The Castle Hotel is located in Trecastle, Powys. The hosts were Corinne & Clive Marshall whom I hope still own the hotel. They were super hosts and we had fantastic meals. There's no air-conditioning here, but our room and bathroom are very nice. It's been another long day, but a very special one - We went downstairs and met some of the local residents at the bar. Cerridwen had Lagar Beer for the first time. She loved it even though she is not a big beer drinker. The food was terrific and we enjoyed another great meal. We then drug ourselves up to our room and got into bed. Great Day. |
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There have been visitors to this page since January 1, 1998 Contact us at our e-mail: dynionmwyn
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standing in the Tor Chapel
doorway
