Glastonbury evokes images of the Holy Grail, the Arthurian Mythos, Sacred Mysteries and New Age Hippies. Well I'm pleased to say Jack Gale's talk finally burst that naive little bubble last night. Yes, the white lighters are there (to the disdain of the locals, carnate and discarnate), yes it has a Celtic heritage, and yes it is a centre of sacred mysteries, but at a deeper level the place is very dark indeed. And perhaps not surprisingly given its traditional ruler, Gwyn ap Nudd, Lord of the Underworld, King of the Fey and son of Nodens of the Abyss.
Jack Gale's talk was essentially a series of anecdotes and tales illustrating the nature of the Glass Isle, collected from people who have lived and practiced magic in the village, the Glastonians - or as today's crew are often known, the Glastofarians - as opposed (sometimes literally) to the Avalonians, local residents for whom the place is simply a unique Somerset village full of strange people.
Jack himself is a Glastonian, or was till chased from the village by the forces that reside there, forces he still deeply respects. The place he says is undefinable, a zone of chaos and dark mystery.
There were far too many fragmentary tales to recall but I shall relate those I found impressive and quote from my notes.
We began with a qoute from Geoffrey Ashe in Gandalf's Garden (1968)
"Most people who get close to Glastonbury seem to go mad, more or less. Sometimes with the higher madness which is wisdom; sometimes not. The professional scholars (with a few exceptions) get as unbalenced as anyone else; only they are cleverer at appearing sane. Whatever the thing is that has such potential effects, it is THERE, in Avalon, an authentic presence"
Jack then explained how this aspect of Glastonbury has been glossed over by those seeking to give the town a positive image, but the reality was always there. At the mundane level the place was reknowned for its conflicts and relationship breakdowns, a place were a simple disagreement could become a blood feud overnight, a flawed relationship disintegrate into emnity and a slight unbalence become psychosis. On the otherhand, though far rarer, a harmonious state became even more harmonious. The place intensifies these things.
Few writers had explored this aspect, one who has is Michael Howard, editor of the Cauldron, a few others have joined him, here are some unattributed quotes from the handout:
"There is an energy at work here that is extremely powerful, tangible and present. Deserving both grave respect and constant awareness. If it touches you it cannot be ignored. It shakes and pulls and reveals. It truely effects people in profoundly challenging and sometimes shockingly damaging ways. The oddest thing is that this energy seems to particularly effect those 'called here', while it seems to have little or no affect whatsoever on many of the long time locals".
"Glastonbury is not always a safe place, and for some people it becomes a truly dreadful nightmare. Through my work I have met too many people who are seriously depressed, anguished, tormented, and even suicidal because of what is sometimes refered to, with irony or gallows humour, as their 'Glastonbury Experience'. People are literally pulled apart mentally and physically'.
This final reference was explained in terms of the story of Richard Whitling, the last Abbot of Glastonbury, who was siezed by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of Henry VIII and dragged by horses, together with two other monks to the top of the Tor, where they were hung, drawn and quartered. The Abbot's head was then hung on the gate of the Abbey and his limbs taken to Wells, Bath, Ilchester and Bridgewater. This story also revealed another strange feature of Glastonbury, its energies seemed to encourage people and even protect them, only to suddenly turn on them without warning. Whitling was constantly reassured by Henry that his abbey was safe from dissolution during the Reformation, being an examplary religious institution. As the last Abbey in England it became one of the most important sacred sites in the country before the unexpected arrival of Cromwell. The bones of Whiting were gathered up and buried at the Abbey where they were allegedly later discovered and identified by a psychic. They are now in the keeping of the enigmatic Father Damian at the reestablished Prinknash Abbey who privately regards them as the relics of the sainted Abbot, even though this is still not recognised by the Vatican.
A similar though less drastic fate befell the discovery of the Abbot's bones, Frederick Bligh Bond, the archeologist and psychic who was appointed by the Church of England to exacavate the Abbey in 1908. Bond was a Freemason, Theosophist and member of the SPR and SRIA who made many geomantic discoveries about the Abbey, including its alleged Cabalist Gematria. He had free reign in the village for 13 years, largely popularising it, and was on the verge of new discoveries when changes in his employers, now opposed to psychism, suddenly removed him from his role. A devastating blow and mockery he took several years to recover from. Some of his work was carried on later by the other Glastonian Wellesley Tudor Pole. A more dramatic tale told of psychics following the tradition of Bond who took to psychic questing after a mysterious blue bowl was found. Years of research was influenced by several independent psychics who all associated the bowl with a veiled female spirit. One 'saw' a secret document that told its origin, hidden under a stone in the middle east, even giving the markings to be found on the stone. After exhaustive search the stone was actually found, complete with predicted markings, and under it was absolutely nothing. The team broke up disillusioned soon after. Like many Glastonians they had been raised up and dropped from a great height.
All of this was tame compared to the psychological nightmares experienced by other Glastonians, which seemed to increase over the years. Even locals spoke of the 'blight', a local fog phenomena which hangs over the village, obscuring even the top of the Tor, bringing with it an oppressive atmosphere. In recent times despite its New Age gloss the village has experienced its first 'drug related murder'. The darker events of the village inspired the novel, the Chalice, and its concept of an anti-Grail, enfuriating many local hippies, but regarded as authentic in its ambience and style, if not its explanation, by several local occultists. Some have regarded all this in ethical terms, as one writer put it:
"It is a dangerous place because of the very potency of its spiritual energies, as those who have despoiled its brooding aura have discovered to their cost. It can generate madness and death as easily as tranquility and revelation. But this is the function of all terrestrial oracles".
Jack was sceptical on this however seeing no real discernment in the victims of the place. While some have been relatively untouched, such as Geoffrey Ashe in the 60s/70s and Dion Fortune in the 40s (who coincidentally came to sequentially live in the same house without knowing it), and others benefited from the association, such as the eccentric Katherine Maltwood, who discovered the Glastonbury Zodiac, several well intentioned occultists have not prospered there. And even Dion Fortune contracted leukaemia a few years after arriving as the villages new celebrity. Curiously those least effected seemed to be those without goals or agendas who just lived on a day to day basis in the now,
One interesting case was of the former pagan activist and libertarian Tony Roberts, who became enamoured with the place, studied its mysteries and became its self appointed guardian amongst the growing occult community in the village. Although a popular radical, if an outspoken one, Roberts was rejected by exclusionist feminists in the local Goddess community, and soon entered into a feud with them in opposition to their 'feminazi' ethos, this turned bitter and lasted for years before Roberts died of a massive heart attack on the Tor. An event celebrated by his enemies who threatened to exhume his body and scatter the bones.
This theme of dismemberment was regarded as a crucial feature of the enigma, and one writer who'd come to a similar view claimed the energies of the Tor were negative and brought a tearing apart, while the energies of the Abbey were positive and healed. Others saw things in terms of a war between pagan and Christian forces. But Jack took a more sceptical view than this neat dualism, argueing that while the Abbey may have that effect and may even have been founded with that aim, it was not part of the occult process itself, which was far older than Christianity. Rather he suggested the area was as the legends said a gateway to the land of the dead, and a place of death and rebirth, where the most severe 'tests' were experienced, and all of ones faults and virtues were intensified and challanged. A process that would either transform and perfect all it touched or destroy it. A true chapel perilous.
This was one of the most enlightening and entertaining talks at the Moot for some time.