Glastonbury
Located in the West
Country,
on the plains of Somerset Levels, not far from the Bristol Channel, Glastonbury
is one of the oldest sacred sites in England. Its history is intertwined with the Holy
Grail and Arthurian legends. The site includes an abbey, town, and Glastonbury Tor, a
terraced volcanic rock topped with the remains of an old church tower.
The area is believed to rest at the
intersection of powerful ley lines of
earth energy. Its mystical lore draws numerous pilgrims and visitors from around the
world. Archaeological evidence indicates the area was inhabited from the third or fourth
century BC; the site may have been sacred to the Druids.
The town was nearly on an island, surrounded by marshlands, until the sixteenth century,
suggesting it may have been associated with the mysterious island of Avalon in Arthurian lore.
Various legends are associated with the
Tor. One holds that King Arthur once
had a stronghold atop the Tor, which provided entrance to Annwn, the underworld. Monks
built a church there during the Middle Ages; it was destroyed in an earthquake. The
present remains are of a later church. According to another legend, Chalice Well, located
at the base of the Tor, is said to have been built by the Druids. Its reddish,
mineral-laden waters are reputed to have magical
powers. Another legend has it that Joseph of Arimathea, the great-uncle of Jesus, brought
the boy Jesus on a trip to Glastonbury, and later built Britain's first aboveground Christian church below the Tor. He threw
the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper into the Chalice Well (see Holy Grail).
The abbey was founded in the fifth
century. St. Patrick, the legendary founder, is said to have lived and died there and was
buried there. Various churches were built at the site over the centuries. The last, dating
from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, was destroyed under Henry VIII, who closed down
all the abbeys and monasteries in 1539 after his split with the Catholic church. In the
ruins of it, the famous Glastonbury Thorn blooms every year, said to be the staff of
Joseph of Arimathea, which took root when he leaned upon it.
Arthur and Guinevere are buried in
secret graves on the abbey grounds, according to legend. In 1190 monks found remains of a
man and the inscription, 'Here lies the renowned Arthur in the Isle of Avalon'. The bones
were reburied in a black marble tomb in 1278, which was destroyed in the dissolution of
the abbey in 1539.
The ruins of Glastonbury were purchased
by the Church of England in 1907 for excavation under the direction of Frederick Bligh
Bond. Bond was extraordinarily successful in locating unknown chapels and parts of the
abbey, and concluded that the abbey's construction had involved sacred geometry known by
the builders of the Egyptian pyramids and
passed down through the stonemasons. Bond claimed to have received helpful information
from the spirits of monks who had lived there and who communicated to him through automatic writing (see Glastonbury scripts and psychic archaeology). Bond's belief that
Glastonbury is connected to Stonehenge
and Avebury by leys has been upheld by
modern ley investigators; the entire theory of leys, however, remains controversial.
In 1929 it was discovered that natural
formations in the Glastonbury area recreate the twelve signs of the zodiac (see Glastonbury
zodiac). The origins of the patterns are unknown.
Glastonbury is the site of Christian
pilgrimages and seasonal rituals practiced by ritual magicians,
witches, and pagans, and of various occult
and spiritual festivals. Bright and fiery lights have been seen hovering over the Tor.
They may be some form of unexplained natural energy. UFO
watchers believe that they are connected with extraterrestrial spacecraft.
Related
books:
Anglo-Saxon
Glastonbury: Church and Endowment (Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, Vol 8).
Celtic Saints and
the Glastonbury Zodiac.
Glastonbury: From
Settlement to Suburb: A History of the 300-Year-Old Town.
Glastonbury Abbey.
Glastonbury Abbey
and the Arthurian Tradition.
Glastonbury
Gleanings.
Looking for
Arthur: A Once and Future Travelogue.
The Archaeology
and History of Glastonbury Abbey: Essays in Honour of the Ninetieth Birthday of C.A.
Ralegh Radford.
The Butcher of
Glastonbury.
The Glastonbury
Tarot: Timeless Wisdom from the Isle of Avalon.
The Glastonbury
Zodiac: Key to the Mysteries of Britain.
Traditions of
Glastonbury.
Further
info:
On Avebury, Glastonbury,
Stonehenge and Cropcicles.
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