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<H1><A HREF="avalon-zodiac1.html">The Glastonbury Zodiac</A></H1>
<H2>Frances Howard-Gordon</H2>
<P>from the book <I><A HREF="http://www.gothicimage.co.uk/makerofmyths.html" TARGET="new" TITLE="Find out more about the book">Glastonbury - Maker of Myths</A></I> by Frances Howard-Gordon, published by <A HREF="http://www.gothicimage.co.uk" TARGET="new" TITLE="Visit the Gothic Image website">Gothic Image of Glastonbury</A>.</P>
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<P>Map adapted from the <A HREF="http://www.palden.co.uk/leymap/" TARGET="new">Map of the Ancient Landscape of Glastonbury</A> by Palden Jenkins.</P>
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<P>Many Glastonbury enthusiasts have regarded the Zodiac as the key to all the myths associated with this place. Some would go further and suggest that the Glastonbury Zodiac is a most important discovery in that it is the story of creation. Indeed, it is a fascinating, thought-provoking phenomenon but, like so much of our dim and distant past, it is wide open to interpretation.</P>
<P>In 1935 Katherine Maltwood announced her discovery of the Glastonbury Zodiac. She had been asked to do illustrations for the medieval romance, <I>The High History of the Holy Grail, </I>reputedly written at Glastonbury Abbey, and as she researched her material, she found that the castles and adventures of the knights of the Round Table corresponded to places in the Vale of Avalon. As she read about the knights' encounters with dragons, lions, giants and others, then traced on the map the places where these adventures took place, she began to notice the outline of a huge lion delineated by the river Cary and an ancient road.</P>
<P>Other figures slowly revealed themselves, delineated by streams, tracks and boundaries, and before long she had discovered twelve signs of the zodiac in their correct order, with the thirteenth figure – the great dog of Langport – outside the circle to the southwest, guarding the winter signs to the north and the summer signs to the south. She called her discovery the <I>Temple of the Stars </I>because, placing a map of the stars over the circle of effigies, the stars and their respective constellations corresponded.</P>
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