 There is on the confines of western Britain a certain royal island, called in the ancient speech Glastonia, marked out by broad boundaries, girt round with waters rich in fish and with still-flowing rivers, fitted for many uses of human indigence, and dedicated to the most sacred of deities. |
Avalonian Mystery Traditions
There's something about the land of Avalon which makes it slightly shimmer, as if the subtle energies and perceptions of the inner worlds or the imagination permeate the physical fabric of this place and the life that goes on here.
The veils between the worlds are thin here, opening doors of deepened perception. This seems to have existed since the beginnings of time.
Glastonbury has a rich history, yet within it there are mysteries, sagas and ethereal traditions which, though often lacking the kind of proof to satisfy the modern rational, sceptical mind, nevertheless have a reality of their own. These mystery traditions variously infer that Glastonbury was:
- a remnant of the Atlantean civilisation
- settled by Sumerians who laid out a vast landscape zodiac here
- a centre of teaching and initiation in ancient times
- a place of the Goddess and Goddess traditions
- the site of a classical Cretan labyrinth on the Tor
- visited by Jesus as a young man (as in And did those feet in ancient time, walk upon England's mountains green?)
- later settled by the refugee Joseph of Arimathaea and twelve acolytes, bringing the Holy Grail and founding one of the world's earliest proto-Christian settlements
- the burial place of King Arthur and Guinevere and the resting place of many saints
- and, in recent times, a few have called Glastonbury the heart chakra of the planet.
Sceptics pass these off as falsities, the money-raising claims of medieval monks or the dreams of new-age mystics, yet there is something to these traditions, and they are outlined in this section. The challenge in this century is to establish a new relationship and dialogue between proven history and myths and traditions. The scepticism of the 20th C has been excessive and excluded too much - and Glastonbury is one of those places where this has had big effects.
See also Glastonbury's History and Traditions