Right Direction

The Alchemical Secrets of Glastonbury Tor

by Ishtar Babilu Dingir

Since its starring role in Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony, friends have been asking me about the magical significance of Glastonbury Tor. Well, I don’t profess to know everything about the Tor. I doubt there are many that do. But I do live here in Glastonbury and, as a shaman, when I walk these lands, they reveal to me some of their secrets. And so I can share with you what I know, and also the thoughts of those more expert than me.

In a nutshell, Glastonbury Tor is a huge vortex of spiritual and temporal power for these Isles of Wonder. Wnen Alfred the Great was trying to recapture them back from the Vikings, in the 9th century, he was camped out near here. But before that, as a child of just six, he had been sent to Rome to learn the great arts and his curriculum would have included magical alchemy, as this was practised by the monks of that time. And so it is my belief that Alfred used the power of the Michael and Mary leylines, which intertwine in a kind of etheric fertility dance to create the incredble vortic energies of Glastonbury Tor, to change who held the power in the land.  After signing a treaty with the Vikings,  to consolidate his power,  a series of campaigns by Edward Elder and his sister, Aethelflaed, known as the Lady of the Mercians, swiftly saw off the countrymen of Eric Bloodaxe and Ragnald son of Sygtrygg ~ and they haven’t been back since!

Of course, it’s no great news that the powers-behind-the-thrones use their knowledge of the occult to maintain their position at the top of the pyramid. But that they have been doing so since the 9th century may be new. I’m not saying that this is necessarily a good or a bad thing. It’s mainly those who haven’t shaken off their Christian conditioning that are terrified of magic and automatically assume anyone using it must be the devil in disguise. It’s just another way of wielding power ~ and the word ‘occult’ means ‘hidden’ because it is performed away from the prying eyes of those who would wish to stop it, of whom there have been more than a few over the past couple of thousand years. But it’s clear that whoever does rule world affairs knows about the power of  magical ritual and ceremony on the psyches of the masses, which in itself is a kind of alchemy that creates new life, or new realities, and this is also a form of magic.

I was reminded of this during the Olympic Stadium scenes which brought to life the dreams and nightmares of the children of Great Ormond Street Hospital and alluded to the creation its main benefactor, J M Barrie, Peter Pan ~ who I’m sure most have figured out is the great fertility god Pan, rumours of who’s death have been greatly exaggerated. These same dreams were also referred to when the words of Caliban from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, were delivered by the actor Kenneth Branagh as he stood on the Olympic Glastonbury Tor.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open, and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked

I cried to dream again.

- Shakespeare’s The Tempest, III, ii

It has always been the role of the wandering storyteller, bard, minstrel or poet to broadcast to the masses, through drama, tales and music, the stories that kings and princes want us to dream, in order to shape our day-to-day realities. And in these difficult and dangerous times, it was obviously felt that there was a need for a new and freshly inspired story while also harking back to our roots, to give us a sense of continuity and connection. Whatever story we’re told, if it’s told well enough, we will take it into ourselves and make it our own, so that when questioned upon it later, we will defend it to the hilt as if we had thought of it ourselves. This is because the story enters into our deepest subconscious through a kind of alchemy.

Goddess of Glastonbury

The Goddess of Glastonbury

by Monica Sjoo

For the long ages of the palaeolithic era before 30,000BCE, the Goddess reigned alone. She was the Origin, the Virgin Void out of which She was Self-created. She was present in all forms of life. Her arching Body was the star-filled Sky. She was the Sun, the Moon and the Stars and the Space between. She was Mother Nature, Mistress of the animals and the plants. The Earth was Her Body. The rivers and oceans were Her blood and life fluids. The plants, trees and vegetation were Her hair. She was the Mother of Time. In ancient Britain the pattern of life was determined by the cycle of Her seasons. Through the turning of the year Her body was visibly transformed from the fresh green Maiden, to the vibrant Lover, to the radiant Mother and the slowly dying Crone. Through the aeons this cycle of transformation repeated itself, interrupted only by the Ice Ages in which the British Isles were completely covered in glaciers and sheets of ice.

In ancient Britain the Goddess was the One who expressed Herself through the Many. She was the great Void, the Beginning of all things. She was the Source of Life, the Creatrix, Continuer and Destroyer of all that exists. She was the Matrix, the Great Mother, Spinner of the Thread of Life and Destiny, Weaver of the Web of Continuity and Cutter of the Thread at death. All souls were born from Her sacred Womb, lived for a span upon Her Body the Earth, then returned to Her Tomb/Womb at death. She was Mother of the Stars in the Heavens and of all Nature. She was the Tree of Life.

She was the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone; the Virgin, the Lover and the Whore. The Holy Grael of Immortality, the Chalice of Love and the Cauldron of Transformation were all in Her keeping, reflecting Her Triple nature. She was the Three, Nine and Nineteen Sisters, Ladies, Maidens, Mothers, Faerie Queens, Crones or Hags, who expressed themselves through the fourfold cycle of Her seasons.

One of the earliest figurines of the Goddess in Brigit’s Isles was found preserved in the peat of the Somerset Levels. She dates from 3250 BCE and is 6″ tall and carved out of ash wood. Although claimed by archaeologists to be a hermaphrodite god doll, She has typical large breasts and a lower protrusion, which is on her left side, like a leg rather than in any central phallic position. She was found beneath the Bell Track, one of the ancient wooden trackways which once crisscrossed the watery Levels, where nomadic people fished and hunted throughout the mesolithic and neolithic eras. Perhaps she is the earliest representation of the Lady of the Lake.

Hail to you, Brigit Anna

Hail Great Queen of Brigit’s Isles

Hail Sovereignty, Our Lady Britannia

Hail Goddess of ten thousand names

May you be honoured and adored forever !

Ishtarsgate

Transit of Venus

The Return of the Divine Feminine

by Ishtar Babilu Dingir

I’m sure regular readers of this blog will not have missed the high magical symbolism of the major events of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, so conveniently timed for the return of the Divine Feminine, Venus, as she makes her double pentagram in the heavens and comes in close enough to the Earth for a kiss. We are celebrating that transit tonight (11.00 pm ~ to 4.00 am in the UK) in the Venus Temple which some friends have lovingly created for this occasion, and I hope you will join us in Spirit.

Last night, children lined the labyrinth of the Tor with lit candles, providing a huge and meandering spiral of golden lights going up to the beacon on the summit which was lit by the Glastonbury Candle.  The full moon was behind the Tor, about to go into eclipse. There were many who stood for hours with their candle, in honour of a Queen of this Earthly realm.

Fezzies

Painting on canvas

Syria-   will the world look away ? (click)

The season for music festivals is about to kick off, with seemingly more people going than ever before. But what does your choice of festival say about you?

Glastonbury, Bestival, the Big Chill, Latitude, Reading? Which wristband will you be flashing at friends and work colleagues this summer?

It's safe to say music festivals are now an established part of British summer time. There are 450 in the UK alone this year and more people are going to them than ever before, says Virtual Festivals UK. They used to be about leaving the social snobberies and constraints of everyday life at the gate. The mud and general madness was a great social leveller. Banker or buddhist, everyone was in it together. Now many are sponsored by big corporate brands and money can buy you luxury unimaginable years ago - tipi with shower and double bed for £3,000 anyone?