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<H1><A HREF="avalon-goddess.html">The Goddess in Glastonbury</A></H1>
<H2>by Kathy Jones</H2>
<H4>Introduction</H4>
<P>From time immemorial, the Isle of Avalon, in the
Summerland (Somerset, England), has been home to the Goddess. This
ancient sacred place is the legendary Western Isle of the Dead.
Dedicated to an awesome and powerful Goddess, this Island lay far to the
west in a shining sea. People were called here to die, to be transformed
and to be reborn.</P>
<P>By tradition, a group of nine, thirteen or
nineteen Maidens or Faerie Queens live, some say even today, upon this
mysterious Western Isle. Skilled in healing and the magical arts of
creation and death, they are the Keepers of the Mysteries of the
Goddess. Their names come to us as those of Goddesses Anu, Danu, Mab,
Morrigu, Madron, Mary, Arianrhod, Cerridwen, Rhiannon, Epona, Rigantona,
Bride, Brigit, Hecate, Magdalena, Morgana, Gwenhwyfar, Vivien,
Nimue.</P>
<P>The Isle of the Dead is the gateway to Annwn,
the Underworld of the Goddess, where the souls of the deceased await
rebirth. The guardian of its entrance is Arawn or Gwyn ap Nudd – Gwyn
son of Nudd or Ludd, the annual year king sacrifice now united with His
Goddess. Gwyn is also Heme the Hunter, the Oak King and Cernunnos the
Stag God. It is said that on Midsummer Night's Eve Gwyn rides out across
Glastonbury Tor with the red-eared white dogs of the Wild Hunt of Annwn,
sweeping in the souls of the dead to the Cauldron of the Dark
Mother.</P>
<P>Today the sea and tidal lakes which once surrounded the
Western Isle have been drained away. The seashore now lies 18 miles away
to the west across the flat Summerland meadows, which are criss-crossed
with rivers and small drainage canals, known as
<I>rhynes</I>.</P>
<P>But when it rains heavily, the water in the rivers
and rhynes rises quickly, spilling over the low banks and flooding out
into the pastureland. The sea returns once more and again this Western
Isle of the Dead rises out from the water and is visible for all to see.</P>
<H3>The Goddess in the landscape</H3>
<P>Glastonbury is one of those places where the very shape
of the landscape speaks to the people who visit or live upon Her slopes.
For it is here that the Body of the Goddess can be seen outlined in the
contours of the small group of hills which rise out of the flat
Summerland meadows.</P>
<P>The Goddess appears in different forms to
different people and as Her Nature changes with the seasons, She
presents Her many faces to those with eyes to see.</P>
<P>For some people the whole Island is Her spread and birth-giving body. </P>
<H4> The Birth Goddess</H4>
<P>Approaching Glastonbury from the southeast and the
direction of Baltonsborough and Butleigh, many people have noticed that
the side-view of the Isle of Avalon presents the profile of a giant
Goddess lying down lengthways before them across the moors.</P>
<P>Stonedown is the head of the Goddess, sinking back into
the landscape. The Tor rises up as Her left breast and Her rib-cage.
Chalice Hill is Her pregnant belly. Bere Lane marks Her hips and
Wearyall Hill is Her left thigh and leg, Her foot sinking into the
ground towards the nearby town of Street.</P>
<P>The 30,000 year old Venus of Willendorf in Austria is one
of the earliest examples of the Birth-giving Goddess. The shape of Her
body is that of the Goddess who has just given birth, with Her belly
still swollen and Her breasts full of milk for Her new child.</P>
<P>The Great Mother is the primordial aspect of the Divine, celebrated and revered
throughout the ancient world. As all human life is born from a woman's
body, so the Goddess was known to be the Source of all life. The
earliest known sculptures are of the Birth-giving Goddess. The squat
all-seeing Venus of Willendorf, which is 30,000 years old, is one
example out of many.</P>
<P>Gaia or Gaea is the
Universal Mother Goddess of the Greeks. She is Mother Earth, our home.
To the Kretan matriarchy She was Rhea. Her European names include Erda,
Eortha, Urtha, Urd, Artha and Hretha.</P>
<P>As the Earth Mother
She is Gaia. For the Celts and those who came before She is Anu-Danaa,
the Good Mother, Goddess of Plenty. She is Madron, Mother of All. As a
Moon Goddess, She is the Full Moon, shining radiantly to lighten the
darkness of the night-time landscape. She is experienced by women when
they are pregnant and during the fertile phase of the menstruation
cycle.</P>
<P>To the Welsh She is Arianrhod, High Fruitful Mother.
Ariadne, our Kretan inspiration, means High Fruitful Mother of the
Barley, derived from the same root as Demeter, Barley Mother – <I>De</I> meaning barley.</P>
<P>The Venus of Laussel in France, another early figure of the Goddess with protruding
pregnant belly, milky breasts and fleshy thighs. She holds a bison horn
in one hand and was once stained red with ochre.</P>
<P>Moving round to the West of the Island in the direction of Meare, the spread
body of the Goddess can be seen from the banks of the River Brue. The
pregnant womb of Chalice Hill is in the centre, with the breast of the
Tor rising behind. Her right breast is flattened falling down to the
side of Paradise Lane. Her right leg is tucked beneath itself as St
Edmund's or Windmill Hill. The left leg of Wearyall stretches down to
the right. From here the head of Stonedown is not visible. From above
Her whole body is visible.</P>
<P>In the landscape of Glastonbury, below Her womb lie the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, site of
the first Christian Church in Britain, prominently situated in the
Vagina of the Birth-Giving Goddess. The remains of the Mary Chapel in
the crypt of the Abbey, lie in this potent and creative part of the
Goddess's body.</P>
<P>Within Christianity, the Virgin Mary, the pure
and spotless Mother of God, is the only nearly-acceptable face of the
Goddess to be found. She is as yet unrecognised as the Virgin (One unto
Herself) Mother Goddess. It would seem however that the first Christian
builders must have been aware of the significance of this sacred spot
when they planned their sanctuary. The Virgin Mary was often honoured in
sites which are sacred to the Goddess.</P>
<P>On the banks of the River Brue to the west of the island
we can stand between the spread legs of the Goddess. In the centre is
Her womb, behind and above is Her left breast. On the right is Her left
leg. Her right leg is tucked under as Windmill Hill. </P>
<BR>
<H4>Glastonbury Abbey</H4>
<P>The ruins of Glastonbury Abbey lie in the Vagina of the
Birth Goddess in the heart of the town of Glastonbury. Volumes have been
written on the Abbey and its place in Christianity and there are many
guide books available which describe its history. For the lover of the
Goddess there are a few interesting details in this takeover of one of
the main Goddess sites in Britain. For as with all places where the
patriarchal religion of the one male God sought supremacy, it built its
phallic extravagances in the Vulva of the Goddess, thinking thereby to
crush Her.</P>
<P>Glastonbury Abbey was erected upon the site
of the first Christian church in Britain, built by Joseph of Arimathea
in 63 AD. According to William of Malmesbury's <I>De Antiquitate
Glastoniensis</I>, Joseph and his friends were told by a vision of the
Angel Gabriel to build a church in honour of the Holy Mother of God –
the Mother Goddess, and the Virgin Mary – the Goddess Mary, in a place
shown them from heaven. This they did, building a small circular wattle
church, which they dedicated to the Mother of God. For the early
inhabitants of the Summerland the Virgin Mary was the Triple Goddess
Brigit, who was the Goddess of Childbirth. At a later time St. Bridget
was said to have been the midwife to Mary and wet-nurse to Jesus.</P>
<P>One of the most potent places in Glastonbury is the ruined Mary Chapel or St
Joseph's Chapel as it is sometimes known, in the Abbey. The proportions
of the existing Mary Chapel are based on the <I>gematria</I> or sacred
proportions of the Vesica Piscis, in which two interlocking circles
overlap to form the Yoni or Vulva of the Goddess. It is from Her Vulva
that we are born into the world and it is through union with Her,
spiritually, emotionally and sexually that we shall return to
Her.</P>
<P>These proportions were re-discovered by Frederick Bligh
Bond, the architect and clairvoyant, when he excavated the ruins of the
Abbey, beginning in 1908. The study of the sacred geometry of the Abbey
has since been developed by John Michell and Keith
Critchlow.</P>
<P>Bligh Bond also found an <I>Omphalos</I> or egg
stone during his excavations. This beautiful Omphalos now lies behind
the Abbot's Kitchen in the Abbey grounds, its significance forgotten.
The Omphalos is a universal representation of the Goddess as Egg of
Life, Womb and Tomb. Shaped like an egg it has a depression in one
surface. Here the menstruating Oracle of the Goddess would sit, Her holy
blood collecting as she gave voice to the Word of the Goddess. This was
the blood of the Goddess Charis, Aphrodite, Venus, Goddess of sexual
love, from which the word Eucharist, meaning communion, comes. This
blood was used in healing.</P>
<P>There are many descriptions of famous
Oracles dedicated to the Word of the Goddess in the ancient world, and
no important decision would be taken without listening to Her Voice.
Many choices today could benefit from time spent sitting upon Her
Stone.</P>
<P>There is another depression in the
Glastonbury Omphalos where the monks tried to christianise the egg stone
by mounting it with a cross of sacrifice. This stone still gives off
powerful vibrations and is a wonderful spot for a menstruating woman to
sit.</P>
<P>The grounds of Glastonbury Abbey are now a green
and peaceful parkland with many unusual species of trees, including a
small cider apple orchard. It is as if the Mons Veneris of the Birth
Goddess were once again being allowed to sprout Her pubic hair.</P>
<H3>Festival of the Mother Goddess – Lammas</H3>
<P>Lammas is one of the four ancient Fire Festivals of the
year, which come at the cross-quarter points between the Winter and
Summer Solstices and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes. These festivals
mark turning points in the relationship between the Earth and Her fiery
Mother, the Sun, revealing the different aspects of the Goddess. Lammas
marks the midway point between the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox
and is celebrated on July 31st, Aug 1st and 2nd, between the hay and corn harvests.</P>
<P>Lammas is the time of celebration for the fertility of the Mother Goddess and the
fruits of Her body, the Earth. For the Celts, it was the feast of Anu
Danaa, the Mother Goddess, of Madron and of Arianrhod, the Birth
Goddess. The first sheaves of ripened corn or other appropriate cereal
are still made into a Corn Doll, or Barley Doll, in the image of the
Mother Goddess, who is also Ceres, Demeter, Goddess of the Grain, the
Barley Mother, Mistress of Earth and Sea. The Corn Doll is blessed and
kept beside the hearth through the autumn.</P>
<P>At Eleusis an ear of corn symbolising the
inherent life lying dormant in the fruit of all plants, played a central
part in the Mysteries of Demeter. At Lammas Her special drink of barley,
water and mint is drunk. This is the Kykeon, the sacramental cup of the
Eleusinian Initiates.</P>
<P>Cornucopiae are goat's horns of plenty
overflowing with flowers and fruit, which are brought to the Goddess's
shrine in thanksgiving. It was the horns of the Goat Goddess Amalthea,
which suckled the young God Zeus, saving his life, in the cave on Dicte
on Krete. In Britain several sculptures have been found of the Deae
Matrones, the Celtic Triple Mother Goddess, depicted as three robed
figures, each carrying a cornucopia. Lammas is their festival, a
celebration of human fecundity and the fruits of the Earth.</P>
<P>The name Lammas come from <I>Lugh nasadh</I> –
'Commemoration of Lugh' or Llew, who was annually sacrificed as the Corn
King to ensure the fertility of the crops. In mediaeval times Lammas was
a Festival of mourning for Lugh and for all dead kinsfolk.</P>
<P>These are known in the north of Britain as
Wakes weeks, some of which are still celebrated at Lammas, as summer
holidays. It was a time to visit the home of your Ancestors to give them
due respect and honour. Glastonbury has long been a place of pilgrimage
for people of all faiths. Many people visit Avalon, the Isle of the
Dead, in the summer.</P>
<P>The dried ears of corn from the Corn Doll are planted in the earth at the following Imbolc
in February, returning the Daughter seed to Mother Earth. The dried
stems are burned and the ashes spread on the earth, the fire releasing
the life of the previous year's harvest back into the Earth. So the
cycle of the Goddess is renewed.</P>
<P>The last sheaf of corn from the end of
the harvest is hung above the fire through the autumn, containing the
life inherent in all fruit. This sheaf will be made into a Bridie Doll
at the following Imbolc.</P>
<P>Echoes of the Lammas festival come down
to us in the Christian harvest festival when the fruits of the harvest
are brought into the church in thanksgiving.</P>
<H4>The Child of the Goddess – the Maiden</H4>
<H5>Bride's Mound</H5>
<P>All Great Mothers must have a child and the Goddess in
Glastonbury is no exception. To the southwest of the Island at Beckery,
in a forgotten, derelict, industrialised area of Glastonbury, covered in
part by the town's sewage works, lies Bride's Mound. This large mound
can be seen as the emerging head of Her Child being born from between
the spread legs of the Goddess. To stand or sit on Bride's Mound is to
feel embraced by the landscape of the Birth-Giving Goddess.</P>
<P>From archaeology, from <I>The High History of the Holy Graal</I>, written in the 13th century,
and from legend, we know that a community of women lived on Bride's
Mound. Even today Bride's Mound is a large mound which would easily have
supported a group of women with their own vegetable and herb gardens and
chickens, even a cow. This was the women's sacred space with its own now
lost Bride's Well.</P>
<P>Until quite recently the Mound was surrounded
by the tidal waters of the River Brue, which could be crossed at
Pomparles Bridge or the <I>Pons Perilous</I> in the Grail legends.
Visitors to the sacred land would cross this dangerous bridge to spend a
twenty-four hour vigil with the women, before being allowed to enter the
island. During this time they would have a vision or a dream of
spiritual significance to take with them unto her Body.</P>
<P>Excavations on the Mound have revealed the
remains of an early chapel dedicated to Mary Magdalene, the unrecognised
Dark aspect of the Triple Mary Goddess. This chapel was part of a Mary
Magdalene hermitage. It was here that St Bridget lived when she came to
Glastonbury.</P>
<P>According to legend King Arthur came to the
Magdalene Chapel at dawn one Ash Wednesday, to find the door guarded by
fiery swords, so no-one unworthy could enter. Within, an aged priest
begins to say mass. The Virgin Goddess Mary appears with the baby Jesus
in Her arms. The child is taken as the sacrament and his flesh is eaten,
but afterwards he reappears whole and unharmed. At the end of the
ceremony, the Mother Goddess gave Arthur an equal-armed cross of
crystal, which was reputedly kept in the Abbey for many centuries and
may still lie buried there. In memory of this vision Arthur changed his
standard from that of a dragon to a silver cross on a green field, with
the Mother Goddess and Her Son in one quarter and three crowns in the
others. These later became the arms of Glastonbury Abbey.</P>
<P>Bride's Mound takes its name from Bride, Brigit, Brighde – the Triple Goddess of the Celts. A chapel dedicated to
St. Bridget was built on Beckery or Little Ireland, in the fifth
century. The nuns who lived here were said to celebrate Easter at the
Aries full moon, no matter what day of the week it was. They lived in
tune with the cycles of the Moon Goddess. St Bridget's emblem as the
nurturing Goddess, of a woman milking a cow, is still visible on St
Michael's Tower on the Tor and around the doorway to St Mary's Chapel in
the Abbey.</P>
<P>The Goddess Brigit is the Triple Goddess of
Brigantia, the ancient Celtic nation which included the British Isles,
Brittany and parts of Spain. She is the Brigit of Poetry and
Inspiration; the Brigit of Healing through the reciting of poetry at
sacred Wells and Springs, and She is Brigit of the Flame, Hearth and
Smithcraft. She is Goddess of the New Moon, experienced by women as a
wave of renewed creativity and wellbeing after menstruation. Her symbol
is a White Swan. Her flower is the snowdrop.</P>
<P>The perpetual flame at Her shrine at Kildare in Ireland was said to have
been tended by nineteen Virgins (One unto Themselves), symbolising the
approximately nineteen-year (metonic) cycle of relationship between the
moon and the sun. Brigit is also known as Bride of the Golden Hair and
Bride of the White Hills. For the Irish She is popularly known as Mary
of the Gael, equated with the Virgin Goddess Mary as Muse and
inspiration.</P>
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