Glastonbury is the cradle of numerous myths and traditions. This hill was a sacred site long before the establishment of Christianity. It is covered with a network of trails that are considered the remains of an ancient labyrinth. Perhaps in later times, a procession moved along them, symbolizing the search for the Holy Grail. This rite, staging a myth that is Christian in content, probably arose on the basis of a modified pagan ritual
Glastonbury in Somerset, in the south of England, is a magical place. Here, the bizarre silhouette of the most famous ancient monument of the island kingdom - a tower left from a destroyed church - rushes into the heavens. This shrine to this day reminds of the former splendor of the Glass Thonbury Abbey. The city and its surroundings are covered with pagan and early Christian legends. In the past, Glastonbury was a group of islands in the swampy lowlands. According to some legends, it was here that the island of Avalon -Yns Avallach (Apple Island), the afterlife of the Celts, was located, before the monks of the abbey drained this swampy area in the Middle Ages.
Myths say that King Arthur and his wife Guenever were buried on Avalon in a wonderful palace shrouded in fog. The origins of English mythology are associated with Glastonbury. The people of the Stone Age chose it as a place of worship for the cosmic Mother Goddess, who embodied the feminine principle (in the understanding of psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, the anima), in which wild, elemental natural power and creative, life-giving, ordering forces were combined.
Druid Academy
During excavations of the Iron Age marsh settlements, archaeologists found boats, “and which people, probably, got to their settlements surrounded by zoda. Glastonbury Hill (Glas-tonbury Tog) with a height of 210 m was also then surrounded on all sides by water and rose above it like an island. Therefore, from time immemorial, it has been identified with the mythical Avalon tno-Celtic Twr Avallach; twr means "mountain", "earth"). The Celts, who perceived Avalon as the other world, established a druidic academy on the island. Here the elect were initiated into the sacraments. According to legend, on this mysterious island were born saints, fabulous creatures, spirits of nature and magicians, among them the wizard Merlin and the fairy Morgana, the sister of King Arthur. Mythical lands, for example the kingdom of the fairy Morgana, were also considered the territory of the Ielts, because for them the world of legends was just as real,as well as reality itself.
Gate between worlds
According to the Berlin healer and physicist Franz Bludorf (born 1950), we perceive time as mediated through a sequence of events, a chain of causes and effects. And the druids, he believes, had power over time. “The one who is able to bend time - says Bludorf - can, at his discretion, prolong and shorten it. Obviously, having mastered this art, the druids passed through the gates of Avalon into the afterlife. Druids were priests, magicians, philosophers, spiritual teachers, clairvoyants, and poets. They constituted an educated and highly influential class of pre-Christian times. It is known from the Irish epic that at general meetings, even the king did not dare to druid before, opening to the other world for druids in an altered state of consciousness. With the help of dances and chants to the sounds of tambourines and rattles, the Celtic priests entered a trance. Celtic myths often speak of severed heads lying on bowls. As receptacles for the soul, they continue to live their own lives and communicate messages from another dimension. The Celts worshiped nature, revered their ancestors and believed in the immortality of the soul, which, according to their views, developed from the kingdom of minerals through the kingdom of plants to the human state. The Celts believed that the soul can simultaneously reside in the physical body and in its spiritual, non-material hypostasis - in the other world.that the soul can simultaneously reside in the physical body and in its spiritual, non-material hypostasis - in the other world.that the soul can simultaneously reside in the physical body and in its spiritual, non-material hypostasis - in the other world.
Symbol of the Earth Serpent The Celts considered Glastonbury Hill to be the gateway to the underworld. And today, you can climb the spiraling Pilgrims Trail winding around the hill to the ruins of a medieval church at the top. The trail was built about 2,500 years ago when the Celts first settled in Britain. The winding road, personifying the Earth serpent, is inherent in primordial harmony and strength, which can cause people who are especially sensitive to energy influences, a state similar to a trance. It is believed that whoever is able to reconcile the vibrations of the earth (Twr) with the cosmic consciousness of the spiral path, finds the key to the gates of another world. Geomancy experts claim that Glastonbury is the scene of colossal energies Legend of Tragic LoveKing Arthur did not heed the warnings of his mentor, the wizard Merlin, and married the blond Guenever, who fell in love with his friend, Sir Lancelot. As a punishment for sinful passion, Lancelot did not have a chance to see the Holy Grail, a gust of wind knocked the knight off his feet, and he remained behind the threshold of the chapel, where the divine cup was kept. For adultery, Arthur sentenced the queen to be burned at the stake. But at the last minute, when Guenever was about to be set on fire, Lancelot saved her. Arthur generously forgave his best knight and unfaithful wife. After Arthur's death, the lovers saw each other again, but then they parted again to atone for their sin from that day on. Guy-nevera became a nun, Lancelot became a hermit (according to one of the legends, he settled in the vicinity of Glastonbury). Guenever, as legend has it, was buried with her husband,King Arthur. Knight Lancelot fell in love with the beautiful Guenever, wife of King Arthur. This miniature from a 15th century French manuscript. depicts the first meeting of Aancelot and Guenever, which was arranged by the courtier Galeot (left). Their love has caused gossip throughout the royal court. Underworld of the CeltsHaving passed through the mists of Avalon, the druids fell through the gates of the Apple Island into the afterlife, the material and spiritual fourth dimension. There they comprehended the physical and metaphysical laws that determine the course of earthly life between its two poles, the birth and death of the body, and include it in a much longer cycle of emergence and disappearance. And this cycle, in turn, is just a stage in an endless chain of transformations. That was the fascinating mission of the initiates - to explore another world inaccessible to most people, where special laws of motion in time and space operate, and to share their discoveries, for example, knowledge of the immortality of the soul, resurrection and power over time. The underworld was for the Celts the abode of soul and spirit, a storehouse of immortality, where the dead are purified for a new birth.
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The publicist and ghost hunter Harry Price (1881-1948), founder of the National Laboratory for Psychical Research in London, interpreted Celtic representations "as spiritual-mental images, a kind of dream world that reflects the memories and desires of those to whom they are." This world is not a purely subjective creation. “We are all capable of creating collective worlds of images that reach our consciousness and therefore really exist,” said Price.
According to ancient legend, Glaston Bury Hill, along with Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, Stonehenge and Avebury, is located not only on the main line of force (a powerful flow of geomagnetic energy) of England, but also on a line of force in the form of a horizontal eight, which stretches around the entire planet like infinity symbol.
Joseph of ArimatheaAccording to medieval legends, after Joseph of Arimathea took the body of the crucified Jesus Christ from the cross in Jerusalem and buried it in a rock tomb, he visited Avalon. A former member of the Jewish Sanhedrin (High Council) and secret disciple of Christ arrived by ship from Judea and landed directly on Glastonbury Hill, which rose in the form of an island above the water. Stepping onto the foggy island, Joseph stuck a wandering staff into the ground, and it immediately took root. The staff was transformed into a thorn bush that, for centuries, flourished constantly among the ancient ruins of Glastonbury Abbey on Christmas Eve. The holy man from Arimathea also took on his missionary journey the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper, the last meal with the disciples, and into which Joseph later collected the blood of the crucified Savior. This vessel, the holy grail,the preacher buried at the foot of Glastonbury Hill, and in this place he hammered the so-called "bloody key". It can be seen today. Scientists attribute the reddish tint of the water flowing from the sacred underground source to the Chalice Well to be high in iron. The Glastonbury legend reveals an obvious resemblance to the legend of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor near Nazareth.
Was Jesus in England?
According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea founded the first Christian church - Vetusta Ecclesia, the oldest in the island kingdom. The inhabitants of Glastonbury are convinced that at that time, when Joseph was still a tin merchant, he, together with his nephew, the adolescent Jesus, visited Glastonbury to undergo initiation into the secret wisdom of the Celts at the Druidic academy. Tomb of king arthurAnother legend says that the Knights of the Round Table, led by King Arthur, gathered around the newly acquired Grail in Glastonbury. In this sacred center of the country, the early Christians erected a small church, and centuries later the Benedictines built an abbey in its place, destroyed by fire in 1184. In 1191, by decree of Henry II, the monks who had lost their refuge began to look for the grave of King Arthur. The find was intended, in particular, to reason with the rebellious Welsh, inspired by the belief that Arthur was alive and would return to free Wales. Soon, two skeletons were found: a man of enormous stature and a woman with well-preserved blond hair.
According to legend, the blonde Guenever was buried at Arthur's feet as punishment for cheating on him: Lancelot. Near the burial, the monks allegedly found a lead cross with the Latin inscription "Hie iocet sepultus incly-tus rex artuhus in insulo avalonio" - "Here, on the island of Avalon, the famous King Arthur rests." At the same time, the grave of Joseph Ari-Mafei was discovered. Both burials quickly became objects of pilgrimage and soon provided the monks with funds to rebuild the abbey. The imposing structure, rebuilt anew, subsequently successfully withstood the onslaught of the Danish and Saxon troops, but was powerless before the power of Henry VIII, who arbitrarily proclaimed himself the head of the Church of England. In 1538, the king ordered that all property be taken from the Catholic Church of England, and his soldiers plundered the monastery at Glastonbury. The last abbot was publicly hanged, and potholes were filled with books from the magnificent library. The dilapidated buildings served as quarries for the neighboring peasants, who built houses for themselves from the extracted material. Today, only a plaque in the park of the Abbey points to the tomb of the legendary Arthur, located where the main altar once stood. In the midst of the ancient landscape of Somerset are the ruins of Tlastonbury Abbey, in which King Arthur was probably once buried. Today this region attracts thousands of tourists. A tablet in the foreground indicates the alleged location of the tomb of the legendary king. In 1962, archaeologists actually discovered an ancient mine at the place where, according to legend, in the XII century.the Benedictine monks discovered a burial with the remains of a man and a woman and a lead cross with an inscription that King Arthur is buried here.
Scientists have confirmed the existence of a burial, but they still have no evidence that it was King Arthur who was buried in this place.