Glastonbury and Goddess Karma

The little township of Glastonbury is less than a 15 minute drive from Bob and Frances' home in Keinton-Mandeville. At first glance it looks like a larger version of Daylesford in Victoria, with a similar emphasis on wells and healing waters from local springs.


Its shops seem to sell almost no mainstream wares at all, merely crystals, meditation and affirmation books, celtic jewellery, witches paraphenalia and medieval clothing. Little lanes with old fashioned lights and old English pubs with their recognisable facades add to the ambience of this quaint and almost time warped village which is full of hippy types, both young and old.


Glastonbury Tor,

A central feature of this area is the hill that dominates the township - a sandstone monolith called the TOR much akin to our Ulharu. The relic of an old church or abbey stands there and attracts hundreds of visitors in summer who climb its very steep pathway, braving gale force winds, to read about the history of the twice built church and to revel in the 360 degree views of the fields and villages and houses that dot the Somerset valley below. Even the cows huddle on the lee side to gain some protection from the strong winds.

Glastonbury is steeped in folk-lore and spirituality dating way back before King Arthur and his round table. The Somerset legend involves Joseph of Arimathea (the Virgin Mary's uncle) who allegedly travelled here with a young Jesus. He returned much later to build a simple place of worship which subsequently became the site of the Lady Chapel at Glastonbury Abbey. This same site also revealed the bones of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in 1191 and thus continued the "holy" reputation of this area.









Nowadays there is a very strong New Age culture that has engulfed Glastonbury and last weekend was the annual Conference of the Goddesses. The village was full of people sporting long flowing dresses and flowers in their hair and on Sunday we witnessed the Goddess Procession arriving at the Wells.












Carrying an effigy of the Maiden Goddess and quietly chanting mantras in celebration of what I think was Mother Earth, they emerged in the Chalice Gardens to bless the sacred springs of Avalon and each other. It was a special and quasi religious experience for those involved.




Carrying large and colourful pageants and sporting bare feet and garlanded head-dresses, these devotees of the Goddess of the Brigit's Isles chanted and blessed and sang their way to the Chalice Wells and Gardens.



Accompanied by budrens, maracas and tambourines they sang and danced and splashed the holy waters of the blood spring (a rusty red because of its iron content) on each other. There was quiet, gentle mantra chanting at the White Well where candles were placed; hand holding and affirmations around a huge tree on a local field, and animalistic hootings after songs that praised their 'totems' or 'symbols' before they joined together to share their offerings of fruit on a huge blanket on the grass.




We met women who had come from America especially for this conference and while some of the ceremony was a tad 'odd' for the uninitiated, there was a genuine and obvious connection between the participants.

The Goddess of Avalon is the spiritual centre of this movement, and teachings are grounded in Britannia's Wheel which is different from the Wiccan Wheel but devotees progress through similar spirals of learning to attain higher planes of what I would call karma, or understanding which enables them to become counsellors, visionaries and spiritual leaders in their communities. I was told that there are more practicing Goddesses or Wiccans in the UK than there are practicing Catholics! As a movement, the Goddesses grew out of the New Age revolution of the 70's, evolving over the generations into a recognised and established movement with rituals and structure and a definite hierarchy.

It is a gentle religion, a fertility religion, a peaceful religion. A female version perhaps of the Druids, it contains some males and is gaining numbers from people disillusioned by mainstream religion who find self esteem, meaning and acceptance in its fold. It was a moving experience.

Mind you Russ didn't come with me! He chose to go to the Aviation Museum and climb aboard the Concorde, a helicopter and an aircraft carrier with Bob and Jeff leaving Frances, Helen and me to indulge our feminine sides!!