The themes of death and rebirth, the systole and diastole of life – the great cosmic balance – lie at the heart of the Avalonian mysteries. These mysteries are guarded by a company of hidden guides, working on both the inner and the outer planes, who impose a strict spiritual discipline on those seeking to fathom the Avalonian wisdom. All who submit to its profound work of soul cleansing and realignment discover that this holy island is a great and sometimes not-so-subtle teacher, as described below. Although Avalon's appointed role in countering the enormous imbalance of this present age is only now beginning to emerge.

For the Grail that is hidden in Avalon will not serve the current human-created world.  Its purpose is to heal: both the land and those humans who see the Earth’s suffering, and who struggle to restore the planetary balance by acting in truth, love, justice and compassion to all beings. Avalon’s purifying and healing role will end only when our current materialistic age passes into shadow.

The Glastonbury Experience & the Path of Initiation

What is called the ‘Glastonbury experience’ can be understood as a distinctive and often highly intense stage of the initiatory journey, sometimes described as 'meeting the shadow', sometimes as the 'dark night of the soul'.  Profound and frequently painful forms of this initiation must ultimately be undergone by all who strive to move forward on the spiritual path, as they process individual karma and overcome the barriers to true soul-growth—barriers created by culture and society, as well as by the personality or ego.  The particular character and timing of this initiation is always unique to each individual.  In this case, however, the initiation is curiously place-specific.  By journeying or moving to Glastonbury, many make a choice at the soul level—sometimes without conscious awareness of this—to submit to a profound and potentially ongoing version of the process of initiation.

In any initiatory process, such as those offered by the ancient mystery schools and spiritual traditions, the aim is to break down the shells or barriers that form the outer personality and awaken the indwelling soul.  This process, or the ‘Great Work,’ is one of moving from being centred (and often engulfed) in a ‘self’ engendered by temporal and social circumstances into the ‘true self,’ the eternal soul.  This process typically happens in stages, via different kinds of crisis—emotional, psychological, financial, physical, professional and spiritual—that are directly or indirectly triggered by the individual seeker’s request or wish for the next level of initiation.  But the work is hard and often, especially when society offers a materially-identified existence, the soul remains asleep and the work does not happen at all.  When an awakening soul comes to a spiritual centre such as Glastonbury, however, whether sought for or not, the work of soul-purging can spontaneously begin or is accelerated.  This process can feel unrelenting and, at times, unbearable.

Glastonbury’s ancient name of Ynis Witrin, the Isle of Glass, reminds us that this glass house, castle or island functions as an alchemical alembic or container.  Entering Glastonbury or the Isle of Glass, whether as a pilgrim or with the intention to stay, commits one to undergoing an individual process of soul-alchemy, as one becomes sealed in the container that is the island and the fire or the light of spirit is applied to it.  (See our book on the alchemy of Avalon, Avalon’s Red & White Springs).  At some level, but to very different degrees, each soul that comes to Glastonbury as a spiritual seeker has made a choice to accelerate the processing of their individual karma and, at some point, meet the shadows that the light casts.  For those who chose to live here, this can feel like the ultimate sacrifice as all attachments are burnt away in the fire applied to the alembic.  When one is in the midst of a Glastonbury experience, the inner guardians of this place may sometimes appear as terrible, like Buddhist or Hindu wrathful deities; ultimately, however, they can be understood as the truly compassionate local midwives, assisting in a profound process of soul rebirth whose aim is to move the individual soul into a purer state of consciousness and way of living—and into a more effective and heart-felt life of spiritual service.

The timing and duration of this process varies considerably.  It may begin soon after moving to Glastonbury or may not occur until many years after arrival.  It may proceed as a series of crisis-waves spaced over several years, each one like an alchemical nigredo or blackening that makes a further contribution to the life-long work of breaking down the barriers that prevent the soul from attuning to higher spiritual teachings.  The Glastonbury experience may be a ‘dark night of the soul’ of brief but incredible intensity; or it may be of many years’ duration, for like other great spiritual ordeals, such as the sun dance of Native Americans, it is a test of our inner strength and endurance.

There is good evidence that the monks of Glastonbury Abbey saw the Tor as a Hill of Purgatory and of Calvary, associating the place with the ultimate forms of spiritual testing and sacrifice.  The Christian identification of ‘this holyest erthe’ with experiences of profound spiritual testing, and also with sacrifice, is reinforced by the legendary association of Glastonbury both with the Holy Grail and with the two cruets containing the blood and sweat of Christ.  In these cases, the sets of symbols describe the higher forms of initiation.  From the Christian point of view, this purgatorial process might be symbolized by the cruel execution of the last Abbot, Richard Whiting, and two fellow monks on the Tor.  The Avalonian Henry de Forest told the author Richard Leviton: “The crucifixion of Glastonbury needs to be completed, the devastation and misery of soul must be more heart-rending, and the experience of the rock-bottom of despair more absolute than elsewhere…  So much depends on Glastonbury’s final resurrection.”  (Leviton, Looking for Arthur.)

Our pagan ancestors, Saxon and Celtic as well as Neolithic, also saw the island as a place of initiation. The Neolithic peoples who made wooden trackways across the Somerset Levels nearby appear to have viewed the island as sacred, since they did not settle there.  But it is now clear they visited it to observe and celebrate the changing patterns of the sky in relation to the hills of the island. (See The Star Temple of Avalon.)  Its later Celtic visitors identified Glastonbury with key otherworldly locations, as the Isle of Glass (Ynis Witrin, the Welsh Caer Wydr), or the apple-isle of the blessed dead (Avalon).  Here, they said, the dying King Arthur was ferried, to be healed of his wounds by Morgan le Fay.  Morgan is an aspect of the British death goddess who can appear in terrible form and is ultimately related to the Gaelic Morrigan, the ‘great queen’ of the battlefield, the Otherworld and the dead.

When early Saxons created the town they called Glaestingaburgh, they left us a legend of Glastonbury’s foundation that involved a sow, an animal sacred to the goddess of the dead, who led her swine-herd many miles before finally stopping in Glastonbury beneath an apple-tree, the food of the dead.  Saxons as well as Celts may also have fuelled local legends about the Tor as home to Gwynn ap Nudd.  This psychopomp, sometimes called a faery king, is Celtic in origin, but he is the local leader of a seasonal procession that was very important in Saxon folklore.  This is the Wild Hunt, ‘Woden’s (Odin’s) Hunt’ or the ‘Troop of Herle,’ a riding forth of dead souls, guardian spirits of the land, and female and male shamans and deities.

The painful intensity of ‘the Glastonbury Experience’ can be more clearly understood through these myths.  As an initiatory process, it can correspond to a quasi-shamanic journey through the lower world or after-life realms, where many different ancient cultures saw dead souls being purified, long before Christianity divided the lower world into Hell and Purgatory.  In this case, however, the lower world journey is undergone in this life, following a path that has been travelled by practising shamans since the earliest origins of mankind.  We can view this intensive process of soul-cleansing and rebalancing as work that is overseen by the ancient guardians of Glastonbury, who may appear in many forms but particularly as a goddess and god of the dead, named for us in legend as Morgan le Fay and Gwynn ap Nudd.

The greater awareness that is now being directed towards this process by the community of seekers in Glastonbury (the Avalonians), is a strong indication that the ‘Glastonbury experience’ is currently intensifying, in connection with the huge planetary emergency that is developing at this time.  The fire is being applied to the alembic; the light of spirit is calling.  Some on the path believe that the years leading up to 2012 represent a particular time of spiritual testing, and that the opportunities they afford for spiritual break-down and breakthrough will become restricted after 2012.  The chances are that the initiatory process won’t become any easier, and, may in fact become harder, as the dominant culture out of balance with life and caught up in illusions hardens its grip upon the self. Humanity may fail its initiation.  We may remain asleep in old patterns of behaviour, and refuse to face the inner shadows that, in fact, grant the secret of transformation.