Musings from Magical Glastonbury

GLASTITUDE! Gratitude for GLASTONBURY!!
GLASTITUDE for living in such a magical town! This fantastic car appeared at a very opportune moment on our way home after a lovely evening filled with Carol's & Gorgeous Music..more on that later.!
We drove home to the edge of town, peering towards an unusual illuminated cloud above the Poldens! We were looking over Butleigh Moor, still partially flooded, 'tuning into the Ether' & pondering life, as you do!
In my core, I felt great joy & playfulness (it's a Superpower according to Lego adverts!) and hope for the future, that counterintuitively the more we allow happiness in ourselves, the greater a fast track towards en-light-enment!!!

The simple joys of living in Glastonbury... Daffodils much earlier than in Birmingham...and Sound Baths Galore!!

GLASTITUDE: Gratitude for Glastonbury!
DAY 35: GLASTITUDE for the daily pleasures of living here! Even the daffodils are in Faery Rings!!! And there are Sound Baths Galore!!
I'm enjoying the daffodils coming out near my house much earlier in the year than in Birmingham where I recently moved from.. it's like being back in London where I grew up! Only then, I had to go to Greenwich Park to see them! A 30 second walk now to see them is heaven!
Plus a 5 minute drive away, last night, I was able to enjoy one of the many sound baths on offer here in Glastonbury! You could probably go to at least 3 a week, by about 9 different people in a month This was a powerful one by Virgine Guillemot & Ingela on bowls & ably assisted by Simon on guitar! A great combination of techniques made for a transformative evening! Thank- you very much 💗😊❤️😸💖🙏🙏🙏😘😘😘

100 DAYS GLASTITUDE: Gratitude for Glastonbury!

DAY 29: GLASTITUDE for Goddess Temple Teachings!

Yesterday, along with other participants, I was asked why we had chosen to come to this event. So I replied.. "When 2 Powerful Women with a Massive track record of Leadership appear on your doorstep to run a course on "Women in Power".. I feel it incumbent upon me to show up.. and learn!!"
What a wonderful weekend we had, first diving deep into the uncomfortable territory of where, how & why we had felt disempowered.. We discussed some interesting avenues that make the issue, of course, much more complex and nuanced than a simple "Down with the Patriarchy!" analysis!! Which, I hasten, to add was by no means a simple solution proposed by the Goddess Temple teachers!
Today we joyfully considered different kinds of power, and went on a journey to explore how we could embody them in our own unique ways. Here I encountered such a loving and tender manifestation of divine feminine power, I wrote this...

"Ah! There were rainbows in my eyes
My aura filled with sparkling stars!!
My Womb was deep moss
My heart thawed, and smiled..

And Goddess smiled at me, so full of
Love and serenity, kindness and peace
A Soft Motherly Embracing Power
Gentle and Fragrant

Tender and Caressing
Holding and Soothing
Ululating and Celebrating
Joyous and Fierce

Magnificence in Splendour
Glorious to Be-Held!

Sovereign-Mystical
Magical-Miraculous
Delightfully sensual
Loving Power

And the Gift to me was
Phoenix Rising...!

Thank-you very much indeed Kathy Jones and Lynne Sedgemoor!

Afterwards while waiting outside Goddess Hall for my beloved to collect me, I met a local chap who remarked that we women had all emerged 'glowing'! We struck up a fascinating conversation across many subjects in just a few minutes, as is often the case in Glastonbury! When you meet people on the same page, you can soon cover a chapter or four in no time!
Off we all went to Timo's Cafe which had obligingly stopped heaving with people, so we sat down to tea and were treated by our new acquaintance to a remarkable quick rendition of 150 lines of a prophetic poem by Mother Shipton from the 1700's. So extraordinarily prescient was it of events future to her, that we now know as history, my mint tea was good and strong, as I'd sat transfixed, ears alert and mouth open!!
A bit of fun banter in French at the counter left me thinking I'd better brush up fast! Just as we were leaving, an innocent enquiry by me as to whether the man with the instruments was going to play or jam, led onto yet another fascinating conversation with what turned out to be a well known 'Impresario-Extraordinaire' living in our midst.
What a delight for me to discuss matters musical, with a gifted multi-instrumentalist and composer of such breadth, I stood listening until my feet ached, so we sat down to yet more tea. I was so engrossed, I failed to comprehend the eye contact by Timo was him silently politely imploring us to leave after his long busy day. Suddenly the penny dropped, and lesson learned, we exited stage left pronto!
What another glorious day for which I am filled with GLASTITUDE!!

100 DAYS GLASTITUDE! GRAITUDE FOR GLASTONBURY!!

DAY 28: GLASTITUDE FOR GREAT GATHERINGS AND PROCESSIONS!
This is the public face of Glastonbury at her finest!! There are of course numerous Great Goings On behind the scenes that are no less noteworthy as contributing to the Magnificence of the Town, some of which I've referred to elsewhere!
This was the first Procession which I'd had the pleasure of joining in since we moved here, as the Beltane processions had clashed with my 60th Birthday parties. So, when the word went out that Glastonbury had invited its townfolks to come dressed as a queen or king for the day, my long suppressed desire to dress up was unleashed and excitedly I showed up, not realising that apparently this meant mainly the children!
At length I overcame my embarrassment thanks to some kind words from the ArchDruid, and the willingness of the Mayor & Town Crier to be briefly seen & photo-ed with me!!
What a fantaaastic feeling of celebration, togetherness and community was created as we all marched down the High Street and into the Abbey! Inside we were addressed by the Mayor and other key figures in the town, before the Glastonbury Brass band serenaded us with wonderful tunes.
We all sat down to have a picnic before being further blessed by the performance of a brand new Mummer's play by John Crow in the heart of the ancient Nave, full of atmoshphere and meaning!
When George regretted having slain the dragon and all the kings and queens were invited to help raise it back to life, out they came including many adults, keen to bring about a wonderful co-creation of re-birth! Being dressed as a queen, at first I was reluctant to participate, but in a bizarre moment, I was encouraged and led by the hand by a female Jester who had suddenly appeared by my side!!
I will never forget the moment we stood as a community, all humming together as we raised the dragon, and you could practically feel the crackle of the atmosphere and the infusion of the moment with beautiful spiritual redolences of healing and rebirth.
It might not even be an overstatement to say that I personally felt, (and maybe we all did?) that little schism of division within my own heart was healed too that day!!!
It was a truly extraordinary introduction to the many blessings of magical Glastonbury! And bizarrely, for quite a time afterwards, it was as if the keys to the king/queendom had unlocked my world, and so many beautiful eye-opening synchronicities were so rapidly unleashed, that my head was left spinning at the magic and miracles that were blooming in the town for us all!
But those are stories for another day.....!!

More Magical Moments!

100 DAYS GLASTITUDE! Gratitude for Glastonbury!
DAY 27: GLASTITUDE for another GREAT DAY TODAY!!
It started with opening a book on the Chalice Well on an intriguing page full of synchronicity & meaning for me...! All may be revealed later..or not!

Next, I whizzed to Tesco's to get magazines in a hurry for collages...Of course all the free ones I'd collated for just such use had vanished & I had Very Rude Awakening on Inflation when I went to pay! Instead of Psychologie & Spirit &Soul type magazines, they were very all House & Home oriented, which made for a rather more practical Hearth vision board than normal, which I secretly relished! Very Earth Momma!!
This was all part of a workshop run by Virgine Guillot & Matthieu on "Embodying Creative Power" which was irresistible, all the more so for being a stone's throw from my house, at the Somerset Rural Life Museum workshop space. We also did "Intuitive Singing", improvising together.. & suddenly I realized I had found the other singers I had literally envisioned singing with before I came to Glastonbury!!
I had arrived wearing a blue jumper with the word BONJOUR on it & it turned out we not only had a loose French connection but were actually NEIGHBORS! Only the other day I had thought it would be fun to meet someone near me I had some common interests with... ,EH..VOILA!! Manifestation before the workshop on Manifestation had ended!
After avidly gluing strips of words onto paper to complete my Word/Mood Vision Board, & a quick tea, off I went to a session of Devotional Chants to Mary Magdalene in the sacred space that is her namesake's Chapel!
In a beautifully crafted evening led by David Curtis we learnt 3 chants, each from a different place & era- Coptic, Egyptian & Indian!! After some interesting discussion on her connection with St Bridie, we sat in candlelight & interspersed the chants with prayers, & the silence dense with presence...! I was moved by the Presence, & then delighted when David offered me a Bridget cross woven from reeds next to the actual place she is reported have lived in 432 CE over in Glastonbury...more than you might imagine!

On the way home we decided to visit the Imbolc Community Evening at the Assembly Rooms & we were further treated to a wonderful story about The White Hart by a storyteller whose name I shall find out pronto.. Also on offer to savour was a Gaelic piper commemorating the Highland Clearances... 200,000 people sent abroad to free up land for lucrative sheep to graze on... Lucky I'm not having Lamb Roast tomorrow! How bitter might it taste knowing the suffering it had caused??
Sam Gelfling who brilliantly organises it read a blistering poem about the Christ..one of those "hits you right behind the eyes" poems that leave their mark on your soul, even when your tired brain can't recall the exact content! Lastly a performance by musicians I'd seen improvising in the interval, who came on & sounded plausibly well rehearsed!!!
Such is the depth & variety of spiritual connection & Earthy entertainment of this extraordinary town, this sacred isle!!

100 DAYS GLASTITUDE! Gratitude for Glastonbury! Day 26! See below! Moving these posts across to my Musings page, as this can go Public!

So grateful to local friends & the people of Glastonbury for their consistent Kindness & Helpfulness! Even when they are tired or unwell, they treat you courteously, & usually manage a smile..! It just seems there's a little more grace down here than the busy city we came from!!!

100 DAYS GLASTITUDE! DAY 26: Gratitude for Glastonbury's Great Kindness & Helpfulness!!

100Days GLASTITUDE! Gratitude for Glastonbury!
Day22: GLASTITUDE for Alchemical Transformations!

No words to say about this....

Just had an unexpected magical encounter online with an Avalonian Wizard!! LOL!!

CELEBRATING MAGDALENE FEAST DAY!

Yesterday I had another wonderful time on a Magdalene Feast Day retreat with Lisa Magdalena Bardell and on her birth-day too!! We spent the morning in the Miracles Room receiving powerful energetic transmissions and sharing deeply. At lunchtime Glastonbury provided me with a birthday present she wanted (I'd asked!) from the Egyptian shop in The Gauntlet, and lunch on the hoof from a great little take-away in there too with home cooked food. (Reportedly the best omeletter ever in there!)

In the afternoon we went to the Magdalene Chapel which was serendipitously empty, despite presumably every other Magdalene celebration & afficionado also heading there! We did a bit of enjoyable improvised singing together, until we were only fairly and gently asked to move on by the steward, as more people arrived to visit!!

Next we went to Chalice Well, and received a beautiful anointing with oil from Lisa at a certain spot in the garden, and the energy billowing up my spine was extraordinary!! In this photo you can see Anjali holding the most exquisite red roses I've ever seen, and when I (dressed in blue) stooped to pick up some petals that had fallen from one of the stems, she gave me a rose head with petals starting to delicately unfurl from their cluster.

Inspired by others' devotional decorative examples, I began to place the petals mindfully by the flows of water and on plants that seemed to want adorning! The rose petals, the garden and the water worked their magic upon me, and soon I was in a trance, moving in what felt like an ancient ceremonial dance with the unseen devas! The coolness of the breeze seemed to cast a reverential hush upon all the visitors, and it felt like a lovely sacred hour there.

After this we headed for the White Spring for a private ceremony, following on from other groups I'd heard of visiting for Magdalene ceremonies. We gathered as a group in there to celebrate both the Magdalene and the concept of spiritual Sacred Union, and then each did our own thing, singing and bathing in the pools. I sat by the pool singing with my ankles dipped in, the water lapping at my hips, paying homage by pouring repeated libations, hoping to avoid getting too cold! When it was time to get ready to leave I did a slow lap around the outside of the pool, which felt beautiful in its own way!

On leaving the Spring I encountered a chap with a cute dog who it turned out was also going to Lisa's birthday party at the Queen of Cups later that night.. a synchroncity which really IS pretty normal for Glastonbury!!

I also met another chap who said he'd enjoyed our singing and asked us who we were and what we were doing. I explained & we found many ideas in common. He offered to give me a lift in his van, and even though I thought it would likely take longer than walking home (correctly as it turned out!) I decided to take him up on his offer. While getting the van spluttering into life and scraping the antennae under branches up Wellhouse Lane, he began to reveal his unusual wisdom and expertise as a practitoner and teacher of the unusual martial art, (a 'cousin' if you will, of Tai Chi & Qi Gong) called Wing Chun. The West has cast it as an extra forceful discipline but it turns out it was developed by a woman in the face of being hard pressed by men, (which might explain a few things!) and it likes to employ a balance of masculine and feminine energies if taught accurately.

In a town like Glastonbury where historically there has been a strong Yoga tradition, it was strange that he should bump into someone like me who prefers Qi Gong, and whose face lit up on him mentioning a further development of the art! Once again I found myself seeing & honouring someone's wisdom and dreams and encouraging them to pursue them, while also explaining some of the challenges involved in launching new projects here. This chap had come to town to do a not very glorious job, and so I told him of all the shops needing workers where he might have a better time. It's a worker's pick, so he seemed happy he might find something more suitable for his talents.

This time I arrived home without even time for the 15 min snooze I'd snatched on the last full-on day on Tuesday.. and I only had time for a superquick change of clothes, before heading back to the Queen of Cups for the second time this week for Lisa's birthday do, thankfully, in the private room. I was warmly greeted by the waiter that all 3 of us had admired earlier in the week, a little gesture that makes you feel like you belong in a place..!

Plates of delicious food kept being brought to us, in a room full of quirky artefacts like a golden octopus candelabra..! Dishes such as tasty Baba Ganoush, amusingly nicknamed "BabaG" in a reference to a guru Babaji, and also slang for w**d!! It had the desired effect as by night's end we were pretty high on good food & good company!!

So much so, that as I passed the King William pub where a performer was energetically singing Tina Turner's "Rolling in the River", I followed a druid I'd just been chatting to inside the pub and joined in the dancing!! There I was, doing what I thought was the obligatory rolling of the hands move that she did, and soon had a group of us all doing the same rolling move in a suitable homage to the Queen of Rock and Roll. Well... what's girl to do after watching the Elvis movie??!!

A fun way to end a fun day, and now I'm choosing to stop saying "I can't believe this is happening to me" and embrace it all.. and learn to cope with the overwhelming rush of gratitude!!!

ANOTHER ADVENTURE IN AVALON!!!

What a weekend!!! It started with me going to the beautiful Companion's Day at Chalice Well (World Peace Garden) where under canvas, we were treated to a view of what weddings look like there.. seated as we were at tables covered with white table cloths embellished with exquisite flowers floating in bowls of water, and brought delicious food to taste!

Our ears were delighted by two talks, (I missed the earliest ones) one by a relatively new Trustee, who explained both some of the fascinating history, and perhaps more crucially the philosophy that has been emerging through the years. Based on the earlier pioneers of Alice Buckton and Wellesley Tudor Pole, he summarised as Chalice Well being a place of Love, Light and Wisdom.

As a teacher he quipped that the getting of wisdom was a rather different affair from the getting of knowledge such as is required in today's education system! As an ex-teacher, I laughed, perhaps a little too loudly, but it triggered more than a few respectful titters around the tent!!

The next talk was two moving tales by both the long term Landscaper, and the Head Gardener who have both served for well over 20 years each (& more!) and obviously been responsible for major transformations in the garden to bring it to the Glory of What Is Today. Stories of the transformation of the tarmac car-park at the front into the perfect pergola pathway at the entrance, & the vesica pisca near the gatehouse. Tales of the cleaning of the well, and the re-burying of personal items thrown down there, which need to be cleared to allow the water to flow again! Insights into the cross pollination of the female Yew trees by the 2 ancient male large Yew trees, reportedly perhaps 300 years old? I'll check and confirm!

In recounting their stories, they both got emotional, and we along with them, which was brought full circle by the Head Gardener saying he felt that there is a Renaissance now going on in the life of the Chalice Well, interestingly the same rebirthing energy I sense in other aspects of Glastonbury, post lockdown.

I was also lucky enough at lunch-time, to briefly meet the last live-in Guardian of the Garden from some years back, along with having a great chat over lunch with fellow miraculous maestro, (and so much more!!) Merilyn Parker Armitage!

It feels like a very auspicious time for me to have just been accepted as a new volunteer last Thursday, bizarrely exactly 9 months to the day since we moved in! As if I've been gestating for 9 months in the ultimate chalice, a womb, and suddenly birthed into a role that I now recall I had vaguely thought I might possibly engage in back in 2018! We had met a former Trustee who wisely advised us to "come into Glastonbury quietly and offer to serve somewhere" which I then interpreted as being with humilty..
Not sure I've achieved this, what with excitedly telling a few of the locals when we arrived, that a Unicorn brought us the house, (as requested!) and with me also prancing down the High Street in the Jubilee Procession dressed approximately as a queen!! But I had read that Glastonbury had invited us to be a queen or king for the day, and nothing said it was for kids only!!!

Apparently my excited Volunteer application form that I wrote a month ago, just after unexpectedly listening to the poetry of Alice Buckton (read by the Trustees in the secret old Cress field beyond the garden 100 years after she released a film about Glastonbury!).. was ranked by the Volunteer Co-ordinator as the longest 'war and peace' sized application they'd ever received!!! Well... what's a girl to do, after attending a poetry event like THAT??!!! And I didn't even mention any unicorns or queens!!!!

Well, I see that my time is up (way past the early night was supposed to be implementing...) but the bright waxing moon is keeping me up!

I shall have to leave the recounting of my exciting "Come and Sing" fun at St John's Church where we rehearsed and perfomed Vivaldi's Gloria, and sight-read an insane piece by Haydn, all inside 4 hrs, with time for tea and cake too!

Another occasion I will regale you with surreal story of experiencing a remarkable sound bath in the exquisite acoustic space that is the Wells Cathedral Chapter House. Suffice to say, I could 'see' in my mind's eye, all the previous ecclesiastical seated incumbents from yester-year looking rather surprised, and yet also perhaps not so much as we might imagine!!

And who knows whether there might be a time I feel able to convey our brief encounter with the Deva at the Wellhead of Chalice Well this afternoon?! Or much less, be at liberty to divulge the extraordinary Merlinesque encounter we had, as we set off to ascend the Tor at 6pm.. and figuratively met a new Moses descending from the Mount on high, a Master Craftsman and Keeper of Scrolls....

Could it be for Such A Time as This???!!!! I'll have to wait and seer!!

INNER QUEEN; OUTER MAGIC; EXTRAORDINARY WEEK!!!

A Deep Bow of Gratitude to All of You who have helped me find and claim my Inner Queen that We All Have!! It's exactly a week ago since I plucked up courage to accept the invitation by Glastonbury to "Be a Queen or King for the Day!! And..OH MY WORD!!..THE MAGICAL SYNCHRONCITIES HAVE NOT STOPPED SINCE THEN!!

When you've been ill for a long time, it can feel like you were the scullery maid, watching others Go to the Ball! But it would appear I finally got the Cinderella Memo at age 60, and off I've gone at last, helped by all you Fairy Godmothers and Godfathers... Bless You All!! I've now decided to reframe my former unwell life as a long apprenticeship and deep initiation by fire (I was even singed by the flames descending from the Beacon on the Tor on the recent Coronation Bank Holiday on June 2nd.. and have the holes in my fleece as evidence!!) So here I am, the proverbial phoenix rising.. and if it's possible for me, it must be possible for ALL!!

My purpose in sharing these photos and story is to encourage you, if it were needed, that if you have not already done so... Crown yourself Queen.. and claim your own Sovereign Queendom.. ensuring it isn't encroaching on Other's Own Holy Realms!! And then it appears & seems as if you are handed the keys to the king/queendom!! And we must find the portals hidden in plain sight, and take the hero/heroine's journeys!!

If you have already claimed your queen/kingdom, the Sovereign Universe/Divine She/He/Hieros Gamos is waiting to 'promote' you to "Empress and Emperor of the Cosmos..!" Because the Divine wants us to be Unleashing the Miracles we need to Usher in the 'New Heaven on Earth'... or as some might call it.. 'The New Jerusalem!'

And some might say we are even the embodiment here of the God and Goddess.. here to co-create the New...! Can we really know what that will be?? If we did, might it be a re-hash of the Old.. and would that suffice?? Could we be the containers and conduits, the co-creators for that which we might currently only see 'through a glass darkly??!!" Are we meant to be the Receptacles for the Glory, the Prisms for the Rainbows... the diverse Beautiful Colours all Sourced from Pure Unified White Light??

Who can say what Spectacles, Innovations, Genius Solutions, Infinite Intelligence and Miraculous Outcomes might Arise, as we hold our nerve and claim our True Power, and Deep Compassion as Sovereigns???

It makes no difference what we call any of it..! Simply that we dare to dream, to believe, to create and "KERPOW!" it, (or whatever feels right for you) into BEING, in perfect Divine Timing. And though I feel a sense of urgency, and could join the collective panic in some domains, I sense the Divine is reassuring me to trust that "All Is Well, and Shall Be Well.. and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well!!" (Julian of Norwich)

Those 'Many Sages of Yore' knew a thing or two about The Things and Twos we could actually choose to TRUST, & NOT stress about. Big Note to Self!!!