Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Chalice Well

  

Here is one of the most mythic places of Glastonbury, the Chalice Well and Garden.   There are actually two sacred springs, the Red Spring and the White Spring, both of which figured in the ritual cycle of the Goddess Conference.  The energy at these wells is so amazing!  They are, like the Tor, at the heart of the mysteries of Glastonbury, of  this place at the center of the legendary Avalon.  

People have been coming here on pilgrimage for a very long time - the great ruined Cathedral and Abbey of Glastonbury and the Tor bear evidence of it's roots as a pilgrimage center that go back to the middle ages, and it is clear that that the Church was built on much earlier pagan sites.  Many feel that the Springs, which have never failed in recorded history, were at the heart of the sanctity of Glastonbury.  

The wonderful energy of the Well!  I sat by the famous Vesica Piscis symbol of the Well Cover and meditated, and had a vision of the Tree of Life, very vivid.  I later went to the healing pool where you can take off your shoes and sit in the waters.  There was a young pilgrim I noticed who, I felt, had entirely the right idea about how to enjoy sacred waters.

The Chalice Garden is amazing as well - you can really feel the presence of the Devas and the Fey Folk there......such color and vitality! 

Here  below are the "Apples of Avalon" in the Chalice Gardens........just beyond it is possible to see the hill of the Tor, and people walking up it.



Truly, these flowing springs are every bit the "Lady of Avalon".  And the flowers!


And here is the Tor, high atop a  long hill that is no small task to climb, along with the mystical and ubiquitous sheep.  
 

This photo was rather surprising, which I took inside the interior of the Tor - since the Lady of Avalon is associated with violet, and the color is virtually everywhere in Glastonbury, I was surprised to find it showing up in this photo.



5 comments:

sukipoet said...

thank you for this vicarious tour of the Tor and surrounds. a friend, now deceased, visited the Tor etc. after she died, because i do crafts, i inherited little plastic bags with rocks and hand written labels "From the Tor" etc. I believe she also brought back some water.

love the little boy.

Martine said...

Thank you so much for this post and the beautiful foto's. I have to wait another year. I'll visit Avalon then with my friend Tressy whom i think you'll meet there this conference............
XXXm

Valerianna said...

Beautiful. And magical violet!! So glad to journey with you in this way....

Lauren Raine said...

Thanks to you........in conjunction with this gathering of women (and men too), it's quite magical. Today we had a procession through Glastonbury to the river, through the farmlands that were once the Lake of Avalon. The Abbey gradually drained the lake by building canals, so it's been, I believe, some 700 years since the hill the Tor stands on rose above the Lady of the Lake. But you can still feel it in your imagination.........

T said...

Wow, these photos are wonderful! It sounds as if your trip is unfolding in amazing ways. I like the little nudist!