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Post by Blackbird on May 23, 2005 12:58:28 GMT -1
Moving along from Devon to Somerset - I expect great things of this county, given the wealth of Glastonbury lore and so forth Over to you all for your information, ideas and comments...
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Post by siaron on May 23, 2005 21:49:11 GMT -1
Hmmmm, I have to say I have mixed feelings about Somerset. I have a connection to that land, especially to Exmoor (Winsford), and when I visited there it was absolutely magical--my husband and I kept saying "It's the Shire from LOTR". And it seemed to be.
We had lunch outside at a wonderful cafe, with the most decadent Devon ice cream for dessert (loaded with chunks of honeycomb! Sheer heaven!)
On the other hand, we got a little piskie-led looking for a B&B near Wells, and ended up in a place we later joked must have been the original Village of the Damned (long story).
I find the whole Glastonbury thing a little wearing, the commercialism and New Age aspects bother me. But the landscape is beautiful, and getting lost down those country lanes is a fond memory (well, except for the whole Village of the Damned thingie).
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Post by branynos on May 24, 2005 8:29:35 GMT -1
Nooo! You can't talk about the LOTR Shires until we get to Warwickshire ;D I know what you mean about Glastonbury, the High St is a bit tacky, but I love the Chalice Well Gardens and keep hoping that the White Spring will make a going concern for it's owners, though being in an old Water pumping station doesn't help. I personally prefer the energies of the well to the Tor. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the walk up. Halfway between Glastonbury and Taunton theres a place called "Burrow Mump", which is less well known but climbing that reminds me of how the Tor used to feel before it became overwhelmed with visitors. The Mump is probably not as ancient as the Tor but it's on the St Micheal Ley Line.
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Post by Brochfael on May 24, 2005 9:43:19 GMT -1
Glastonbury:
At the foot of the tor are two springs. The red (or Chalice Well) spring is rich in Iron Salts and stains the surrounding rock reddish brown. The white spring on the other side of the lane had a reservoir built on it in Victorian times. The salts in the white spring cause a build up of white "scale" hence it's name. The reservoir is now disused and houses a few new agey shops and a vegetarian cafe (at least it did when I last visited about five years ago). The colours are suggestive. Think of the two dragons in Ludd and Llefelys and Merlin, also the colours of the English flag. Red is supposed to be emblematic of life because of being the colour of blood. White as well as symbolising purity, symbolises fertility (think mistletoe berries and semen).
It is interesting that the tower atop the tor is all that remains of a church demolished by an earthquake.
It is said that the terraces around the sides of the tor, viewed from above, form the shape of the labyrinth carved on the rock at St. Nechtan's Kieve in Cornwall and supposedly the shape of the Minotaur's labyrinth.
It is also said that field boundaries around the tor form the figures of the signs of the zodiac.
There were Iron Age villages at Glastonbury and nearby Meare. These seem to have been communities of craftspeople as pottery from the area appears across Britain and North-Western Gaul. Tools, metalwork and Crucibles have also been found. Caesar's conquest of the Veneti, a seafaring tribe of Southern Brittany, seems to have pulled the economic carpet out from under these lake villages so that they declined and fell between 50 and 30 BC.
Earlier Neolithic and bronze age trackways crossed the salt marshes that surrounded Glastonbury until post mediaeval times. The Earliest of these was the sweet track now more than 5000 years old. A jadeite axe head from Switzerland was deposited alongside it. This is perhaps the earliest piece of evicence for cross-channel trade.
There are exhibits relating to ancient Glastonbury at the museum in town and also at the Peat Moors centre at Westhay about 5 miles outside town where roundhouses and trackways have been reconstructed.
That's about as much as I know about Glastonbury. I'll write about other Somerset sites another time
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Post by siaron on May 24, 2005 13:19:30 GMT -1
Well, both of your posts reminded me of the book "The Sun and the Serpent". There are definitely strong energies around Glastonbury, I could feel it at the Abbey as well (and let's face it, they built ALL the major Christian sites on top of pagan sacred sites).
I haven't been to Burrow Mump, but have read about it. I'll have to check it out the next time I'm in the neighborhood.
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Post by morgaine on May 24, 2005 16:17:21 GMT -1
The Sun and the Serpent is a wonderful book -- and the comments on Somerset are excellent. As an update, the White Spring has been sold to a companion of the Chalice Well, who hopes to establish a trust to restore and maintain it. The waters of these two wells have begun to cross in the past several years, with red showing up in the White Spring cafe and White calcium deposits appearing behind the lion's head at the Red Spring.
Change comes, even to what is eternal...
The two springs have different sources, it would appear, but both run beneath the Tor -- which in part accounts for its unique dynamics. There is indeed a sort of labyrinth one can walk on its slopes, though I did not see its likeness at St Nechtan's, when we were there last year.
The best book I know of on these mysteries is by Nicholas Mann: Energy Secrets of Glastonbury Tor. Mr. Mann is also a Druid and historian who has lived most of his life in Somerset. He has been a friend and guide to us in our explorations of Somerset and we are honored to know him. Nicholas also gives, near the end of the book, one of the most poignant and accurates accounts of Avalonian Druidry I have ever read (for those with an interest).
As to the Shire... I have found it in many places, including the US (though the threat of Mordor is here more apparent). Funny you should mention that... since a great part of Celtic literature is about healing the Wasteland -- which is, in essence, the theme of the rings trilogy.
Bendithion, Morgaine
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