THE MYTHS associated with Glastonbury Tor are extraordinary. It has been called a magic mountain, a faeries' glass hill, a spiral castle, a Grail castle, the Land of the Dead, Hades, a Druid initiation centre, an Arthurian hill-fort, a magnetic power-point, a crossroads of leys, a place of Goddess fertility rituals and celebrations, a converging point for UFOs.

These myths are still very much alive today, although they are constantly being built upon and undergoing change. This is not surprising, given that this 500-foot high conical hill is a most striking and inspiring landmark - visible at vast distances and yet invisible at certain angles close-by.

If you climb the Tor on a clear day, you will be astonished by the extent of the views: to the north you will see the Mendip Hills together with the city of Wells and its cathedral; to the west the island of Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel; Brent Knoll to the northwest; the Polden and Quantock Hills to the southwest, and the Black mountains of Wales in the far distance; the Hood Monument and Dorset to the south; to the east Cadbury Hill, Alfred's Tower on the borders of Wiltshire, and Cley Hill- a hill famous for UFO sightings.

On a misty day you can experience for yourself what it must have been like when Glastonbury was an island - the Isle of Glass. From the summit of the Tor you will see only the swirling mists of Avalon with patches of green in between. What is now the flatness of the Somerset Moors and Levels has become watery marshes once again.

PREHISTORY

The mythology of the Tor reaches so far back into ancient times that it is impossible to give it a beginning. But if we try to look beyond Christianity and beyond the Celtic Druids, we may discover some answers concerning its origins and purpose. All kinds of information and interpretations are shedding new light on what was previously dismissed as the old religion. As each new cult or religion supersedes another, so it tries to blot out or deny what came before. Such is the nature of conversion. This is what could have happened in the case of Goddess worship, a way of life which may have existed all over the world until around the fifth millennium BC.

The emphasis on the divine female is largely based on the larger number of female carvings and figurines found in the old European culture compared to a relative lack of male forms which appeared later when males were the hunters in hunter-gatherer societies and the Goddess was combined with the worship of male Gods in the pagan polytheistic religions of the Greeks, Romans and Celts. Later still, with the invasion of Europe by the Indo-Europeans from the East, the Goddess religion was suppressed and male dominance became the norm.

The Goddess would have taken many forms and would have been represented in a variety of different aspects, but believers would have seen her essential nature in the harmony and balance of the natural order, the ebb and flow, growth and decay of life itself. Evoked and celebrated on hills and mountains, these would have been her seats or thrones on earth. It is interesting to note that many early images of goddesses have spirals on their breasts, symbolising the coiled serpent or dragon, both regarded as sacred in the old religion. The dragon or serpent represented the natural energies of the earth and sky - energies to be co-operated with and revered. In the Shakti cults of southeast Asia and China, dragons and serpents were associated with clouds and rain, and the Sumerian goddess Tiamat was a sea-serpent and Great Waters goddess. The dragon was also regarded as a manifestation of the psyche in which the real and the imaginary are blurred and are, as in nature, only different aspects of life.

The labyrinth pattern on Glastonbury Tor, similar to Cretan labyrinths, would have been created for ritual purposes long before the Druids are said to have used it in their rites and initiation ceremonies. Labyrinths are deeply symbolic, their most usual interpretation being that of the soul's journey through life, death and rebirth. The seven-circuit Tor labyrinth would probably have been made and threaded during the time of the goddess religion.

Although the archaeologist Philip Rahtz, who excavated the summit of the Tor from 1964 to 1966, has not committed himself on the existence of a human-made labyrinth, he has said that if it is there, its probable date would have been around the second or third millennium BC. Archaeologists are interested but cautious, and presumably they will remain so until it is excavated. However, in the summer of 1979 Geoffrey Ashe made a long study of the Tor and concluded that it did indeed exist. His booklet The Glastonbury Tor Maze gives the evidence he found and shows the labyrinth to be one of the great ritual works of early Britain.

Many of us who live in Glastonbury have walked the labyrinth at one time or another and found it to be a useful tool for journeying into the unconscious and much more besides.

To find out everything you need to know about labyrinths, read Labyrinths: Ancient Myths & Modern Uses by Sig Lonegren.

CELTS AND DRUIDS

Around the third century BC, the Celts founded two lake villages at Glastonbury and Meare. Their burial ground was called Ynis Witrin, an old British name meaning Isle of Glass. Also in Celtic legend the name Avalon occurs, derived it seems from Avalloc or Avallach - a Celtic demigod who ruled the Underworld. However, Avalon also signifies apple orchard or Isle of Apples, very apt for the cider-making county of Somerset. Apples were associated with goddesses in many mythologies and with a western paradise where the sacred apple tree is guarded by a serpent or dragon. Some names for this paradise garden derive from an ancient root word meaning apple.

According to pagan British as well as Celtic lore, Avalon was the meeting-place of the Dead - the point where they passed on to another level of existence. Not only was Avalon a hill surrounded by water, but it was also linked with Caer Sidi - the Faeries' Glass Mountain or Spiral Castle where the natural energies of the earth met with the supernatural power of death. In ancient times Caer Sidi was described as the abode of Cerridwen, the enchantress who possessed the Cauldron of Wisdom, a goddess with powers of prophecy and magic.

The remnants of stones scattered around the lower slopes of the Tor point to yet another possible use of this hill. Could it have been used as a moon observatory in conjunction with the threading of the labyrinth as there is a good deal of evidence connecting megalithic stones with Druid initiation ceremonies?

A recently discovered vantage point for viewing the winter solstice sunrise as it rolls up the steep side of the north east end of the Tor is the mound on Glastonbury's Windmill Hill (the very top of St Edmund's Hill). The Sun is clearly seen from there obliterating the tower as it hits the summit. This is well-worth experiencing though in prehistory the Sun would not have rolled up it in the same way due to the changes in the Earth's axial tilt angle. For more information see The Star Temple of Avalon by Nick Mann and Philippa Glasson.

To many, the key document on the whole question of Glastonbury is the Life of St Collen by a Welsh saint of 650 AD. The manuscript tells the story of a Christian hermit living in a cell on the Tor who is visited by two emissaries of the Faery King Gwyn Ap Nudd. They persuade him to visit their king on the summit of the Tor. Because the hermit believes faeries to be demons, he takes holy water with him. He enters the other world of the king's castle, refuses the lavish hospitality, splashes holy water every-where and causes the castle and faeries to disappear.

During the sixth and seventh centuries, a number of Celtic Sagas appeared concerning the heroes of Britain. These sagas linked the Faery King Gwyn with the Glass Island, and also with Annwn - the Celtic land of Faery, King Arthur, and the Cauldron of Plenty. However, the earliest reference to Glastonbury Tor is in the Charter of St Patrick compiled around the middle of the thirteenth century. Two lay brothers are mentioned, a fact which suggests the beginning of a monastic settlement on the Tor. More evidence that the Tor was a monastic site occurs in the thirteenth century in a Charter of Henry III of 1234 AD, giving permission for the holding of a fair "at the monastery of St Michael on the Tor".

Faery fairs turn up in folklore time after time and they always appear to have been held near labyrinths, mounds, standing-stones, hill-forts or earthworks. There is still an annual Tor Fair in Glastonbury but it is no longer held on the Tor, and is a very far cry from what one may like to imagine it once was. It is now a simple fairground as found everywhere these days.

ARTHURIAN ASSOCIATIONS

The oldest story connecting King Arthur with Glastonbury is told by a monk of Llancarfan called Caradoc in his Life of Gildas. Queen Guinevere was kidnapped by Melwas, King of Summer Land (Somerset?) who kept her at Glastonbury. Arthur arrived to rescue her with soldiers from Devon and Cornwall, but was hampered by the watery country. A treaty was arranged between the two so that Arthur and Melwas ended their quarrel in the church of St Mary - the Old Church - and Guinevere was handed back to Arthur. Glastonbury Tor would have been an obvious place for Melwas to have a fort, and excavations on the summit point to a hill-fort of that period.

In a pre-Christian version of The Quest of the Holy Grail, namely the Welsh poem 'Spoils of Annwn' in the Book of Taliesin, King Arthur and his company enter Annwn, the realm of Gwyn Ap Nudd, to bring back a miraculous cauldron of inspiration and plenty. The Tor is featured as the Corbenic Castle (Grail Castle) where the procession to the heavily-guarded grail or cauldron takes place. As the cauldron was associated in those times with fertility and prophecy, it is very possible that an ancient ritual was performed there, traces of which survive in the later legends of the Holy Grail.

In Arthurian legend Avalon was also the home of Morgan le Fay, a Celtic goddess or Faerie Queen, but she became more commonly regarded as Arthur's sister. Her name occurs in Celtic Europe as Fata Morgana in Italy and as Morgain La Fee in France. As Fata Morgana, she lived beneath the waters of a lake, leading one to suppose that the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian mythology and Morgan le Fay could have been at one time the same.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHRONOLOGY

Excavations on the Tor between 1964 and 1966 give us a chronological outline which, although open to varying interpretations, gives us something to go on with regard to dating the uses of the Tor through the centuries. Remains of graves on the summit dating back to the fifth and sixth centuries (known as the Dark Ages) suggest a pagan religious site. It could also have been a small Celtic Christian monastic site as the type of pottery found is common to other early Christian sites, although the large quantity of meat bones suggests that these were not Christian ascetics. A sixth century bronze head with a Celtic face points to metal-working on the Tor and the site may also have been used as a stronghold or hill-fort. The Celtic Christian culture probably derived from the late Roman way of life and predates any settled Saxon administration.

The discovery of a wheel-headed cross confirms a Christian basis in the eleventh century (late Saxon, early medieval) and the preponderance of fish, bird bones and eggshell among the animal remains definitely supports the theory that a Christian settlement, with a hermitage, existed on the Tor at this time.

The first church on the Tor was probably of the late twelfth or early thirteenth century and was dedicated to St Michael - a dedication characteristic of such a hilltop site. St Michael, apart from being the ruler of archangels according to Christian tradition, was also the dragon-slayer and the personal adversary of Satan. Early Christianity believed the gods of the old religion to be fallen angels or demons. The Christian church seems to have had a policy of building churches dedicated to St Michael on the old religious sites and sacred mounds. Since the Tor and its spiral labyrinth represented the dragon, symbol of the Earth Spirit or Goddess in pagan times, the building of a church dedicated to the dragon-slayer was meant to act as a powerful deterrent to any kind of pagan celebration.

In 1275 there was an earthquake and the church of St Michael crashed to the ground, hopelessly ruined. Another church was built and the tower or chapel, which is all that remains, dates to the fourteenth century, with some later alterations and embellishments. The carvings on the south-west face of St Michael's tower show Michael holding the scales and St Bridget milking a cow. One of the signs of Imbolc (February 1st) is that the ewe's milk starts running in preparation for feeding the lambs. Also at Imbolc, looking through that door to the north-east, you will see the Imbolc sunrise towards Pilton. St Bridget was originally the Celtic goddess Brighde or Bride who, at her festival of Imbolc in February, presided over the lactation of domestic animals, sheep in particular. She was also the goddess of fire, of the sun, of poetic inspiration, childbirth and metalworking; later, she became the Christian St Bridget of Ireland.

TUNNELS AND WATERWAYS

There are many stories, both real and imaginary, about a series of tunnels beneath the Tor. Jazz sessions used to take place in one such tunnel entrance in the early 1960s, but since then they have all been blocked up. The most famous tale is about a tunnel from the Abbey to the Tor. At one time some thirty monks are rumoured to have entered the Tor via this tunnel, but only three came out again - two insane and one struck dumb. Wherever these entrances begin and end, a point worth noting is that experienced dowsers are convinced of the Tor's hollowness and the existence of a variety of underground springs (possibly seven) forming a vast network of hidden subterranean waterways.

There is no mistaking the powerful elemental quality on the Tor. Some would describe it as a whirlwind, a vortex or meeting-point of energies in their purest and wildest form; others would describe a primordial dragon twisting, turning, and roaring to be let out. Please note this dragon can be calm and serene too.

Many visitors to the Tor have had strange psychic experiences there including suddenly leaping into the air, feelings of weightlessness and disorientation, or disappearing into subterranean passages. In 1969 a group of night-shift workers saw a saucer-shaped object hover over the Tor, and later a big fiery-red ball appeared over the hill and then moved rapidly over Glastonbury. In 1970 a police officer saw eight egg-shaped objects in formation over the Tor. These cases were reported in the local paper. Sightings continue to occur.

Glastonbury Tor also plays a significant part in the alignment of sacred prehistoric sites known as the St Michael line. According to the renowned author and thinker John Michell in his book New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury,

Geographically it is the longest line across land that can be drawn over southern England, extending from a point near Land's End in the far west to the eastern extremity of East Anglia. On or near its straight course lie major St Michael sanctuaries of western England: Glastonbury Tor, Burrowbridge Mump, Brentor, Roche Rock, St Michael's Mount, Carn Brea.

Paul Broadhurst and Hamish Miller, authors of The Sun and the Serpent, used dowsing to track for 300 miles the course of this enigmatic line on the landscape with fascinating results for Glastonbury and its environs. They called it the Michael line and found a Mary line too which encompassed 23 churches dedicated to St Mary compared to 10 churches dedicated to St Michael or St George on the Michael line.

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People who live in Glastonbury speak of the way they are sometimes impelled to go up the slopes of the Tor, while on other days they would find themselves unable to approach it. The Tor has meaning in people's lives as something always seems to happen when you go up there. When you need to answer a question, resolve an issue, or simply blow away the cobwebs in your life, the Tor is the place to head for. The Tor labyrinth is walked with the intention of solving seemingly impossible problems as its disorientating effect can lift the veil between dimensions. For some this leads to a new perspective on life. A day or so before childbirth some expectant mothers have felt a strong urge to climb the Tor and this has heralded the onset of labour.

However one perceives Glastonbury Tor - as an energy centre, a cosmic power-point, an ancient oracle or a fairytale castle - all the evidence indicates the existence of a prehistoric culture deeply involved with the forces of the earth and sky, forces which were depended upon, utilised, celebrated and understood in ways which we have yet to fully rediscover.

Source: https://gothicimage.co.uk/gi3/index.php/about-us/item/51-chapter-1-glastonbury-maker-of-myths

DEUTSCH - GOOGLE Übersetzt

AARTHURIANISCHE VEREINIGUNGEN

Die älteste Geschichte, die König Arthur mit Glastonbury verbindet, wird von einem Mönch von Llancarfan erzählt, der Caradoc in seinem Leben von Gildas genannt wird. Königin Guinevere wurde von Melwas, dem König des Sommerlandes (Somerset?), Der sie bei Glastonbury behielt, entführt. Arthur kam, um sie mit Soldaten aus Devon und Cornwall zu retten, wurde aber durch das wässrige Land behindert. Ein Vertrag zwischen den beiden, so dass Arthur und Melwas ihren Streit in der Kirche der hl. Maria - der alten Kirche - beendeten, und Guinevere wurde an Arthur zurückgegeben. Glastonbury Tor wäre ein offensichtlicher Platz für Melwas gewesen, um eine Festung zu haben, und Ausgrabungen auf dem Gipfel zeigen auf eine Hügel-Festung jener Zeit.

Glastonbury Tor

In einer vorchristlichen Fassung der Quest des Heiligen Grals, nämlich des walisischen Gedichts "Spoils of Annwn" im Buch von Taliesin, geben König Arthur und sein Unternehmen Annwn, das Reich von Gwyn Ap Nudd, um einen wundersamen Kessel zurückzubringen Von Inspiration und viel. Der Tor wird als Corbenic Castle (Gralsburg) vorgestellt, wo die Prozession zum schwer bewachten Gral oder Kessel stattfindet. Da der Kessel in jenen Zeiten mit Fruchtbarkeit und Prophezeiung verbunden war, ist es sehr möglich, dort ein altes Ritual zu spielen, dessen Spuren in den späteren Legenden des Heiligen Grals überleben.

In der arthurischen Legende war Avalon auch die Heimat von Morgan le Fay, einer keltischen Göttin oder Faerie Queen, aber sie wurde häufiger als Arthurs Schwester angesehen. Ihr Name kommt im keltischen Europa als Fata Morgana in Italien und als Morgain La Fee in Frankreich vor. Als Fata Morgana lebte sie unter dem Wasser eines Sees und führte zu der Annahme, dass die Dame des Sees in der arthurischen Mythologie und Morgan le Fay auf einmal gleich sein könnte.

ARCHÄOLOGISCHE CHRONOLOGIE

Ausgrabungen auf dem Tor zwischen 1964 und 1966 geben uns eine chronologische Skizze, die, obwohl offen für unterschiedliche Interpretationen, gibt uns etwas in Bezug auf die Datierung der Verwendungen des Tores durch die Jahrhunderte zu gehen. Überreste von Gräbern auf dem Gipfel aus dem fünften und sechsten Jahrhundert (bekannt als die dunklen Zeiten) deuten auf eine heidnische religiöse Seite hin. Es könnte auch eine kleine keltische christliche Klosterstätte gewesen sein, da die Art der Töpferei gefunden wurde, die anderen frühen christlichen Stätten gemeinsam ist, obwohl die große Menge an Fleischknochen darauf hindeutet, dass es sich nicht um christliche Asketen handelte. Ein Bronzekopf aus dem sechsten Jahrhundert mit einem keltischen Gesicht zeigt auf Metall-Arbeiten am Tor und der Ort kann auch als Festung oder Hügel-Fort verwendet worden sein. Die keltische christliche Kultur stammt vermutlich aus der spätrömischen Lebensweise und schlägt jede sächsische Verwaltung vor.

Die Entdeckung eines radköpfigen Kreuzes bestätigt eine christliche Basis im elften Jahrhundert (spätsächsisch, frühmittelalterlich) und das Übergewicht von Fischen, Vogelknochen und Eierschalen unter den Tieren bleibt definitiv die Theorie, dass eine christliche Siedlung mit einer Einsiedelei, Existierte auf dem Tor zu diesem Zeitpunkt.

Die erste Kirche am Tor war vermutlich vom späten zwölften oder frühen dreizehnten Jahrhundert und wurde dem hl. Michael gewidmet - eine Hingabe, die für eine solche Hügellandschaft charakteristisch war. St Michael, abgesehen davon, dass der Herrscher der Erzengel nach christlicher Tradition war, war auch der Drachentöter und der persönliche Gegner des Satans. Das frühe Christentum glaubte, dass die Götter der alten Religion Engel oder Dämonen fallen würden. Die christliche Kirche scheint eine Politik zu haben, Kirchen zu errichten, die dem hl. Michael auf den alten religiösen Stätten und heiligen Hügeln gewidmet sind. Da der Tor und sein Spirallabyrinth den Drachen, das Symbol des Erdgeistes oder der Göttin in heidnischen Zeiten repräsentierten, war der Bau einer dem Drachentöter gewidmeten Kirche als eine mächtige Abschreckung für jede heidnische Feier zu dienen.

Im Jahr 1275 gab es ein Erdbeben und die Kirche von St. Michael stürzte zu Boden, hoffnungslos ruiniert. Eine andere Kirche wurde gebaut, und der Turm oder die Kapelle, die alles übrigbleibt, stammt aus dem vierzehnten Jahrhundert mit einigen späteren Umbauten und Verzierungen. Die Schnitzereien auf der Süd-West-Seite des St. Michael-Turms zeigen, dass Michael die Waage hält und St Bridget eine Kuh melkt. Eines der Zeichen von Imbolc (1. Februar) ist, dass die Mutterschafmilch in Vorbereitung für die Fütterung der Lämmer beginnt. Auch bei Imbolc, der durch diese Tür nach Nordosten schaut, wirst du den Imbolc Sonnenaufgang in Richtung Pilton sehen. St Bridget war ursprünglich die keltische Göttin Brighde oder Braut, die auf ihrem Fest von Imbolc im Februar die Laktation von Haustieren, insbesondere Schafe, vorsitzte. Sie war auch die Göttin des Feuers, der Sonne, der poetischen Inspiration, der Geburt und der Metallbearbeitung; Später wurde sie zum Christian St Bridget aus Irland.
Nassen, Schafe im Besonderen. Sie war auch die Göttin des Feuers, der Sonne, der poetischen Inspiration, der Geburt und der Metallbearbeitung; Später wurde sie zum Christian St Bridget aus Irland.