Prediction Magazine, June 2003.

Home of pagans, witches and a famous music festival, there's more to Glastonbury than meets the eye...

For many years now the name of Glastonbury has been associated with the well-known rock and pop festival held at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset. You may wonder why an annual pop-music event held on a dairy farm in a little West County village should bear the name of a town at least nine miles distant. The answer - maybe - lies in the fact that Glastonbury Tor, the conical hill around which the town nestles, is a landmark in the area, which can be clearly seen rising above the uniform flatness of the Somerset levels from the sloping valley which hosts Michael Eavis‘s freewheeling exercise in open-air indulgence.

But it still remains a remarkable fact. It would be like calling a festival held in South London "the St. Pauls festival" because you can see the cathedral in the distance; or calling a fair in North Lincolnshire the "Hull Fair" because, on certain days, you can catch sight of the city over the River Humber.

The fact is that Glastonbury was famous long before the festival imposed any of its ramshackle rock and pop ideology upon the name in the early seventies. It was famous in the late sixties, when John Michell’s book, The View Over Atlantis, was first published: a book which continues to draw attention to certain arcane and mystical notions about the town. And it was famous again, in the late fifties, when Geoffrey Ashe wrote King Arthur’s Avalon, tracing the literary and historical associations between Glastonbury and the mythical King of the Britons. And again in the 1930s, with Dion Fortune’s Avalon of the Heart: a book which continues to urge people from around the globe to visit the town and to seek out its mysteries. And back, back, further back: through Medieval romance and Celtic legend and beyond, into stories and myths which pronounce all sorts of miracles and mysteries in this place, to the birth of Christ and before.

Holiest of the Holy.

Go to any book shop in Glastonbury - to Gothic Image, say, the oldest New Age bookshop in the town, or the Speaking Tree, both on the High Street - and you will see that it is filled with countless books about Glastonbury, about its legends and its history, about its myths, about its landscapes and its healing, about its philosophy and its future and its future place on the Earth. There is no town in the world that has inspired so many words, so many books, so much speculation. How many words, per head of population, has this town generated? It would be a world-record, surely.

And it is remarkable, too, how consistent Glastonbury has remained over the centuries. If it is a tourist town now, it was a pilgrimage town in the Middle Ages. And while you get more than your fair share of buskers and beggars on the High Street (more of an annoyance than a threat), then, chances are, it was always full of hawkers and street people and hurdy-gurdy men accosting you for your spare change. Indeed, there’s a wood-cut print in the entrance to the town hall showing a particularly rowdy late Medieval scene illustrating the fact that, in atmosphere at least, nothing much has changed.

Well, one thing has changed. As a Medieval place of pilgrimage, the holiest in the British Isles - reputed as both the burial place of King Arthur, and as the site of the earliest Christian Church outside of the Holy Land - it was clearly associated with Christianity. And while the Christian associations continue, with the sedate, if slightly sterile, ruins of the Abbey being a favoured visiting spot, and an annual mid-summer march from the Tor to the town centre by visiting churches, yet there is evidence now of many other kinds of religious practice too: from Hindu Ashrams to Buddhist meditation centres, from acupuncture to Indian head massage, and with a multitude of New Age shops selling every conceivable aid to spiritual development you could hope to find. Want to buy a crystal, anybody? Glastonbury’s your place. There must be a half-dozen crystal shops within a quarter mile radius.

Well all of this, from a Christian point of view, could be called "pagan": the word being deployed, historically, to denote any non-Christian religion. On the other hand, it is doubtful whether Hindus or Buddhists, acupuncturists or masseurs, would readily agree to accept the title, there being an implied insult in the use of it. A pagan is a lost person, a damned person: someone not swayed by the authority of the Christian God, or of its institution on Earth, that great historical-political entity, the Christian Church..

And yet there are a number of people who would call themselves pagan, many of them currently living and working in Glastonbury.

Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at Bristol University (a regular visitor to the town and author of a number of books on paganism) puts it this way: "Paganism takes its place in Glastonbury alongside esoteric Christianity, the Eastern religions and Native American traditions, as part of the greatest shop window for alternative spirituality the UK currently possesses."

What is paganism?

Readers of Prediction will probably already know the origins of the word: from the Latin "paganus", meaning country-dweller, or villager, corresponding to the English word heathen, meaning the people of the heaths. Historically, then, paganism was the religion of the countryside, as opposed to the town, and implied a set of practices and beliefs having more to do with the cycles and realities of nature than with the abstractions and obfuscations of religious dogma. Country people need to know when, exactly, to plant their crops, when to harvest, when to rest, when to celebrate, and there is always a clearly defined focus on fertility-rites in their practices. They will be interested in the cycles of death and rebirth, of sex and death, and more understanding of people with specific knowledge of the healing properties of herbs and plants. They will be less concerned with the vagaries of philosophical speculation or the hierarchies of religious institution. In other words, paganism is what the people got up to when the priest wasn’t looking.

Modern paganism, then, can be understood as a kind of harking back to another, practical-based, observational, non- hierarchical, holistic world-view.

Ronald Hutton, again:

"The roots of paganism go right back to the end of the 18th century, and, in a sense they’re one of the last, and most exciting children of the romantic movement. In other words, they’re bound up with a reaction to having too much civilisation, against cities, against industry, against the subordination of women, against the destruction of nature, and, as such, they are peculiarly well-suited to a lot of modern needs. Since first appearing they have developed into a number of distinct traditions, but they are united by a respect for the feminine that equals the masculine, a reverence for the divine in nature, and an ethic of personal fulfilment. And these three things are held together by an interest in, and love of, images taken from the pre-Christian religions of Europe."

Glastonbury has proved particularly rich soil for the various expressions of this new form of romance, ever since its rediscovery, some time in the late sixties, by the hippie generation.

But let’s be clear about this. While the pagan belief-system may be growing in popularity, there is as yet no agreed canon or liturgy or priesthood or place or practice of worship. People are free to make their own minds up. Perhaps - as some people were keen to assert - it is better that it remains that way.

Or, as Bruce Garrard, proprietor of Unique Publications on St Johns Square, and co-organiser of the Green Man Gathering, said: "There isn’t a pagan movement in Glastonbury as such. There’s quite a number of people who call themselves pagan or goddess-worshippers or various things, but very little consensus about what paganism is." And then he adds, somewhat mysteriously, "what you do depends on what you believe."

So what does he believe? Paradoxically he defines it by what he does.

Bruce’s particular form of spiritual practice involves a monthly men-only sweat-lodge, held on full moon nights in the open air.

"It’s a unique event," he says, "at one and the same time a men’s group type event, and a magical ritual."

The ritual involves the setting up of a sacred circle, giving acknowledgement to the four directions and the four elements while calling in the spirits before, finally, loading preheated stones into a canvass covered shelter. This is the sweat lodge itself. The men then enter, naked, close the flap behind them, and pour water on to the stones to raise steam. In other words, it is a kind of ritualised sauna, but under canvas, and in the open.

But it is entirely different from a sauna, says Bruce. He has a friend who has an actual brick-built sauna in his back garden and has been invited to use it. But it wouldn’t be the same, he says.

So what is the difference?

"The monthly sweat lodges are my only spiritual practice. I don’t go to church or any of those kinds of things. It is a kind of spiritual cleansing as well as a physical cleansing, and is done with a sense of purpose."

Which is what, exactly?

"Well firstly it is to raise energy for the Green Man Gathering. And then to get people in touch with their personal stuff, with their feelings."

The Green Man Gathering is an annual event, lasting three days over the bank holiday at the end of May. Again it is men only, once more having a sweat lodge as its centre piece, but with group workshops and rituals and fire-side entertainment as well, culminating in a Monday sharing circle to discuss the outcome of the event.

There is clearly a level of personal politics associated with events like these, to do with sex and sexuality, with gender identity and sexual role play, men’s groups - with or without ritual - being an outgrowth of the women’s groups favoured by the feminist movement of the last part of the twentieth century.

The Goddess Temple is yet another such outgrowth. Situated at the bottom of Glastonbury High Street, in the courtyard of the Glastonbury Experience, it is, according to Kathy Jones, one of the organisers, "the first contemporary Goddess Temple to have been created in Europe in perhaps a thousand years."

Honouring the Goddess.

The Goddess Temple is the natural extension of the Goddess Conference held at various venues in Glastonbury in early August (around Lammas) for the last nine years, also, partly, as a result of Kathy Jones’ efforts. But whereas the conference is theoretical in nature, being mainly a discussion forum for issues around Goddess-worship, the Temple is practical, offering men and women of all persuasions a space in which to pursue their thoughts. "It is open for people to come and do Goddess ceremonies, meditations, workshops, talks, healings, anything to do with the Goddess. The space is available for people who are following different kinds of paths within the Goddess tradition," she says. They are currently applying for Home Office registration to make the space an official religious building.

But how would she define "the Goddess"?

"We believe she is imminent and transcendent, personal and impersonal, local and universal, within and without all creation," she says, intoning from their mission statement. "We believe that she manifests and communicates through the whole of nature and the sacred land, visions and dreams, senses and experiences, imagination and prayer. We believe that no form of words can ever encompass her."

Which is a definition - it has to be said - so broad and all-embracing as to be almost entirely useless.

But, before we find ourselves stuck in some suburban cul-de-sac of speculative reasoning, let’s remind ourselves of where we are. Because Glastonbury is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and there are plenty of places to see, regardless of your particular spiritual preferences, many of which carry a deep unearthly resonance.

There’s the Chalice Well Gardens, for example, on the junction of Chilkwell Street and Well House Lane, where the source of one of the famous Glastonbury Springs rises, a place of almost supernatural beauty, of air and water and fire and elemental landscape, where various sculptures and pathways have been incorporated into the natural world in a such way that it echoes very deeply into the heart of any human being. And while the guardians of the Trust do not espouse any specifically pagan beliefs, the gardens themselves are open to all forms of worship.

As Michael Orchard, who, along with his wife, has been the guardian of the Well since the Autumn of 1998 says: "We aim to preserve Chalice Well as a site of sacredness and of healing and to keep the space available for pilgrims and those in need of healing, for people of all faiths and religions."

Alternative Worship.

The Trust itself holds non-denominational ceremonies in the gardens at the various points in the year recognised by a number of traditions as sacred, namely: at the Equinox’, the Solstices and at the four Celtic fire-festivals of Imbolg, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain (at Candlemas, Mayday, Lammas and Halloween, to give them their respective Christian titles). Indeed, if there is anything uniting the pagan tradition it is the practice of worship at precisely these times of the year, and pagans are invited to attend, or to organise ceremonies of their own, out of hours. "As long as they are in keeping with the Well and its aims and objectives," he adds.

Which is to say, probably, that they don’t condone the sacrifice of virgins: not yet, or at least not in office hours.

Other places worth visiting are: firstly, the Tor itself, with its three-dimensional terraced maze, with the skeletal remains of St Michaels church tower on top, an invigorating walk, with a stupendous view from the crest; and, secondly, the ruins of the Abbey, stately and serene, with the High Alter being reputedly one of the most energetic power points in the British Isles.

Both of these places, incidentally, while bearing the inarguable remains of an encrusted Christianity, also reveal signs of a more ancient pagan past, in the form of prehistoric egg-stones - fertility symbols again - secreted about their parts. We will allow readers of the magazine to find these for themselves.

It is also worth noting that, while some people might declare themselves as pagan, and make a great song-and-dance about the fact, there are others, no less gifted of mind, who would not openly pronounce such views. You are just as likely to meet a talented tarot-reader, or someone with memories of various past lives, capable of seeing into your own, in one of the pubs or cafes in the town, going about their business in an entirely unassuming way, as you would be were you to hire the skills of a professional practitioner taken from a card in one of the shop windows. Indeed, it is highly likely that the woman serving you in the bread shop knows more about the secret art of spell-making, than all of the pundits selling their wares from recognised outlets put together.

In other words, it is best to keep an open mind.

One final thing. Although it is clear from talking to people that paganism is a disparate sort of philosophy, wide open to a variety of interpretations, there are some expressions that seem to embody its essence, at least in the physical sense. One of these is the practice of decorating trees. You will see this again and again throughout Glastonbury: an innocent-looking tree in some quiet corner garlanded with objects, with flowers and ribbons. It is this, more than anything, that lends a charm to the town, and which speaks of some belief in the mysterious power of nature, with us, the human, at its heart.

For information about the Green Man Gathering contact: Bruce Garrard, Unique Publications, 10, St. Johns Square, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 9LJ. Tel: 01458 834786.

For information about the Goddess Temple and the Goddess Conference contact: Kathy Jones. Tel: 01458 831518.

For information about the Chalice Well Trust and Chalice Well Gardens contact: Michael Orchard, Chalice Well Trust, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 8DD. Tel: 01458 831154.
CJ Stone 2003.