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Life choices

Palden Jenkins

Glastonbury is a pilgrimage place, but not in the way it once was in medieval and ancient times.

Many 'pilgrims' are not religious, and only some of them see themselves to be following a spiritual path. The majority are simply sensitive people who are pulled here. Their deeper psyche seeks something.

What do they seek?

Often people answer: 'a break somewhere different', 'interesting place', 'an event or course', 'meeting friends', 'not sure - seemed like a good idea', 'came before and liked it', 'just happened on the place' or 'shopping'. But the unstated answers often seem to be: 'recharging batteries', 'opening up' and 'I needed to work something out'.

While visiting, people don't necessarily notice what's happening to them. It comes clear after they leave Glastonbury. Something has shifted and resolved itself while they weren't looking. The load feels lighter, or they see things clearer, or a decision has been made.

Sometimes, this is intentional - people come here to 'shake it up', say their prayers or work something out. Sometimes people realise they have become aware of something new, resolved something and made some deep life-choices, without really realising it. Or perhaps they just had a great time, and feel something has changed afterward.

Squaring the circle

Some people say that a visit to Glastonbury marked a turning point for them. It might not only be Glastonbury doing this - it might be that they chose to visit at a time when they were unconsciously ready to break through, and Glastonbury made a critical difference. The 'inner' and the 'outer' re-joined, the aura expands, something deep down relaxes and accepts life as it is, something has become whole.

The 'Angel' or 'Goddess' of Glastonbury, or the Lord of the Underworld, tend to confront you with your 'stuff'. Whatever is just under the surface of awareness tends to bubble up and present itself - often manifest in events and 'coincidences' during your visit. It's often a background process, though sometimes a course, counselling, a healing session or a specific experience marks the turning point.

Coming home

It starts with that frisson of excitement or anticipation when you come over the brow of a hill and first see the Tor. It's not just a strange hill - it's a kind of call-sign or icon which connects you with something deep down inside. Your daily-life self is foreign to this, but to your deeper self it's your natural condition.

This 'critical point' experience isn't always comfortable. Some people have difficulty. They abreact to the shops on the High Street ('commercialism'), or the gaggle of lost drunks ('crusties') who hang around town, or to mobile-phone users on the Tor. Or someone spills ketchup on their new dress, or tells them to piss off, or ignores them when it's so important. Or the queue in a shop or cafe takes a long time. Or they simply don't like the abnormality of it all. Or they have a strange dream while staying at a B&B. Or they have a 'healing crisis' after a therapy session that was supposed to make them feel better. Or someone puts that damned soya milk in their tea.

Angels and demons

The gift here is that it confronts us with things we suppress or hold at a distance. It presents us with truth we didn't know we were seeking. It uncovers unconscious associations, hardly-remembered deep memories or aspects of ourselves we had set aside while treading our treadmills or hiding in our comfort-zones.

It can be very positive too. Our greatest fear can be of happiness and fulfilment. The music, the company or the atmosphere can overwhelm our emotional armour, and suddenly we're blissed out, remembering that we can love, be truly alive and follow our inspiration.

These shifts constitute deep, pattern-forming life-choices, tide-turnings in the hidden places where real decisions or orientations are made. This is why Glastonbury is a pilgrimage place - and it has been so for a few millennia.

Energy field

It's partially the land itself. Partially the people, partially the residual place-memory from a long history. It has something to do with Glastonbury's place in the world's energy meridians and networks. 'The veils are thin', and different levels of reality intersect more closely. The spirit, soul or unconscious come out more easily. 'Peak experiences' are possible.

What next?

When you come, be more intentional about it. Set aside some time for just stopping, going quiet and letting go - at the Chalice Well, the Abbey, on the Tor or Stone Down. Switch off your mobile. Let it be. Give yourself space for Nothing, Everything and Beyond. Drop the doing, do the being.

Give yourself a deliberate special experience - a course, a therapy or healing session or life-reading, or a spiritual occasion. We're not humans having a spiritual experience, but spirits having a human experience.

Meet some new friends, pick up a few books, do something to brighten someone's day. Look people in the eyes and say hello. Find some local friends, contacts in town for next time around.

Certain special-interest groups such as druids, crop circle researchers, goddess-lovers and dowsers have their annual conferences and gatherings here. People have gathered in Glastonbury for more centuries than history records. Off-season, why not arrange to meet your widely-dispersed friends here? Quite a few people have marriages and handfastings here too, or prayer circles.

If you live in UK, try coming two or three times a year. If you live abroad, drop by when you can, over time. A continuity emerges, as if it's a periodic reality-check, a necessary servicing of your soul. If you're running on economy, there are ways of doing Glastonbury inexpensively.

If you have a life-choice before you, come for a long weekend or a longer break. If it's more urgent than that, then have a session right now with The Glastonbury Tarot!

Glastonbury will probably still be here in a thousand years. But if you wait that long, you'll miss something.