Glastonbury has always had a special attraction for me and is the main location for much of the King Arthur Ledgends and was the place I most wanted to visit.. So again, with marvelous bus/train/bus connections I was to Glastonbury in a matter of hours and again to find "no room in the Inn". There is always something special going on there but this weekend it was the Megalithomania Festival and the town was FULL. I was actually about to give up and leave town when I discovered a tavern (definitely not a lovely English Pub) with a "rooms available" sign. I gave it a look, took the room and the young lady mentioned they had music that evening till midnight. Well, the only other person staying there was the DJ for the evening and later I found out why we were the only two people staying there. When I got to the room in the evening I couldn't believe how LOUD the music was, it actually vibrated the bed and made the hangers in the closet rattle.
After checking in I took a walk to the Tor
coming back to the town on a Public Walking Path through the fields and literally stumbled on the Shekinashram as I left the fields. They had B&B rooms and were having a special celebration for Amma that day. If I was to have a Guru it would definitely be Amma, Sheila and I have stayed at Amma's Ashram in India, I listen to her Bhajans and see her when she comes to Seattle. Well, they had a room for the next night, a lovely yurt in the garden and I took it for the following day which was Sunday.
And what a Sunday it was, like being back at the Tagore Festival with one big experience after another. First there was an early morning Cleansing Fire Ceremony at the Ashram which was very meaningful. I rushed from that back to the "Boom Box Hotel" to check out and have my "English Fry Up" for breakfast (not at all in sync with the vegan ashram crowd) and hitch-hiked to the Street Quaker Meeting one village away.
To my surprise the Street Meeting is one of the 10 largest in England in membership with a long Quaker History and with some of the very first Quakers as members. One of the ladies had brought a beautiful bouquet of roses for the table (Quakers don't have altars) and offered them to me as I was leaving so I was able to take them back to the Ashram where they were very much appreciated. The Ashram has flowers and rose petals everywhere.
After the Meeting I was off to experience the Abbey which is where the legend says King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are buried and some other gruesome English history.
The monk was especially funny, he told of how the Abbey was destroyed by fire in 1184 and in 1191 they miraciouslly discovered the tombs of Arthur and Guinevere and re-buried them with much pomp and ceremony, attended by King Edward 1 and Queen Eleanor. The monk said if you believe the story or not you have to agree it was a marvelous bit of marketing that raised lots of money to rebuild their beloved Abbey and still does. And rebuild it they did, in such glory that by the 1500's it was the 2nd largest in England. In 1539 Henry VIII seized the Abbey with the Dissolution of Monasteries Act. Now here come the gruesome part. The Archbishop, Richard Whiting, protested and to set an example King Henry had him hung at the Tor, his head cut off and stuck on a pole at the entry and his body quartered and sent off in the four directions. Makes me cringe to write about it.
I finished the Abbey in time to catch an afternoon lecture at Megalithomania.
John is well known in cosmological circles and his examples of Sacred Geometry are amazing. He finished by saying the Universe is blossoming and we are in the center of the lotus flower. A lovely image as opposed to Armageddon.
Quite a day in Glastonbury and feeling fortunate I didn't have to leave town. Glastonbury was everything I imagined and more.
Monday was more relaxed, thank goodness. Had lunch at the 100 Monkeys Cafe which I think is a great name for a cafe, especially here. Lots of great names like The Psychic Piglet; Heart Felt Trading, Cafe Galatea, The Goddess and the Green Man, Labyrinth Books, Natural Everything and on and on and on....
In the afternoon I spent time at the beautiful Chalice Well Garden which is a National Peace Garden. They have celebrations in the garden for the 8 positions of the moon each year as well as the Full and New moons. Not just the solstices and the equinoxes but the time halfway between each called First Stirring, Flowering, Fruition and Resting. I have mixed feeling about the Grail Legend but found the garden to be an especially peaceful and worshipful place and begin to appreciate the Holy Grail story more as metaphor than as story. That's and accomplishment for being brought up with a literal fundamental approach to Christianity.
I now appreciate the search for the Holy Grail more as a personal journey and our search for meaning and transformation.
Seems like the perfect place to end this personal journey, hopefully I can remember and integrate a few of the things I have learned along the way. It has been a pleasure to share them with you and in so doing have made them more real for myself.
Wishing you well on your own journeys.
After checking in I took a walk to the Tor
coming back to the town on a Public Walking Path through the fields and literally stumbled on the Shekinashram as I left the fields. They had B&B rooms and were having a special celebration for Amma that day. If I was to have a Guru it would definitely be Amma, Sheila and I have stayed at Amma's Ashram in India, I listen to her Bhajans and see her when she comes to Seattle. Well, they had a room for the next night, a lovely yurt in the garden and I took it for the following day which was Sunday.
Courtyard of Skekinashram
Celebration with Amma
And what a Sunday it was, like being back at the Tagore Festival with one big experience after another. First there was an early morning Cleansing Fire Ceremony at the Ashram which was very meaningful. I rushed from that back to the "Boom Box Hotel" to check out and have my "English Fry Up" for breakfast (not at all in sync with the vegan ashram crowd) and hitch-hiked to the Street Quaker Meeting one village away.
Newer Street Meeting House built in the mid 1,800's
To my surprise the Street Meeting is one of the 10 largest in England in membership with a long Quaker History and with some of the very first Quakers as members. One of the ladies had brought a beautiful bouquet of roses for the table (Quakers don't have altars) and offered them to me as I was leaving so I was able to take them back to the Ashram where they were very much appreciated. The Ashram has flowers and rose petals everywhere.
After the Meeting I was off to experience the Abbey which is where the legend says King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are buried and some other gruesome English history.
The Abbey Kitchen, the only building not destroyed.
The Abbey is a major tourist attraction with people
in costume telling stories of the history.
The monk was especially funny, he told of how the Abbey was destroyed by fire in 1184 and in 1191 they miraciouslly discovered the tombs of Arthur and Guinevere and re-buried them with much pomp and ceremony, attended by King Edward 1 and Queen Eleanor. The monk said if you believe the story or not you have to agree it was a marvelous bit of marketing that raised lots of money to rebuild their beloved Abbey and still does. And rebuild it they did, in such glory that by the 1500's it was the 2nd largest in England. In 1539 Henry VIII seized the Abbey with the Dissolution of Monasteries Act. Now here come the gruesome part. The Archbishop, Richard Whiting, protested and to set an example King Henry had him hung at the Tor, his head cut off and stuck on a pole at the entry and his body quartered and sent off in the four directions. Makes me cringe to write about it.
I finished the Abbey in time to catch an afternoon lecture at Megalithomania.
Lecture by John Martineau at the Megalithomania Conference
titled What on Earth is the Universe Up To.
Quite a day in Glastonbury and feeling fortunate I didn't have to leave town. Glastonbury was everything I imagined and more.
The 100th Monkey Cafe serving fresh love that day
Monday was more relaxed, thank goodness. Had lunch at the 100 Monkeys Cafe which I think is a great name for a cafe, especially here. Lots of great names like The Psychic Piglet; Heart Felt Trading, Cafe Galatea, The Goddess and the Green Man, Labyrinth Books, Natural Everything and on and on and on....
Chalice Well where the Holy Grail is suppose to be at the
bottom of turning the water slightly red.
In the afternoon I spent time at the beautiful Chalice Well Garden which is a National Peace Garden. They have celebrations in the garden for the 8 positions of the moon each year as well as the Full and New moons. Not just the solstices and the equinoxes but the time halfway between each called First Stirring, Flowering, Fruition and Resting. I have mixed feeling about the Grail Legend but found the garden to be an especially peaceful and worshipful place and begin to appreciate the Holy Grail story more as metaphor than as story. That's and accomplishment for being brought up with a literal fundamental approach to Christianity.
I now appreciate the search for the Holy Grail more as a personal journey and our search for meaning and transformation.
Seems like the perfect place to end this personal journey, hopefully I can remember and integrate a few of the things I have learned along the way. It has been a pleasure to share them with you and in so doing have made them more real for myself.
Wishing you well on your own journeys.
We live our life when we love it.
~Rabinindrath Tagore~
