The Living Goddess of Glastonbury

2006-09-22T08:54:00.000Z

Autumn Equinox

2006-09-21T14:16:00.000Z

The weather is turning and the leaves on the trees are changing colour, as so did the Temple last weekend.

Melissa Kat , Priestess Bridge ,the beautiful Artist Caroline Probyn and myself helped dress and prepare the Temple for the coming Autumn Equinox.

Everything was cleaned and dressed the rich chocolate brown and bright orange..the colours of the season. Just as the fields have had their last cut of Harvest..and return to the furrowed earth..so the Temple once again reflects the season change in her colours.

We also have a beautiful Goddess Wheel donated to the Temple by the amazing artist Wendy Andrew. It is a moving wheel of the Goddess and her seasons. Small card versions can be bought in the Temple.

The Autumn Equinox is a time when our Ancesters would prepare for the winter months..a time of equal day and night and balancing what we have received through out the year and prepare to release what no longer serves us. The days will now be shorter and the sun disappears ..only to return at the Winter Solstice.

It is a time to prepare for hibernation....we wish! and giving thanks to Gaia for that last cut of Harvest to feed us through the winter months ahead.

Come join us for the Autumn Equinox Celebration on Friday 22nd September at 7.30pm ..this time to be held at the ASSEMBLY ROOMS in Glastonbury. We have outgrown the space of the Temple...all the more reason for a new one.

Please come and join us..with music,song and dance.

Donations are welcome

Blessed be and Happy Autumn Equinox

Priestess Georgina

Blessed be...

2006-08-03T20:48:00.000Z

...our Mother. Blessed be myself. Ah Mother, I thank you for this planet divine.

Blessed be my body. Blessed be my voice, my family, my home. Blessed be my service, my journey, my tribe, my sisters. Blessed be the brothers of my community. Blessed be our Mother.

On the second day of the Conference, Aniqua from Australia led the singing, her sweet, powerful voice ringing out and picking up all the other voices in the hall. Composed and centred, she drew everyone in.

As in the evening, when in the stillness of Chalice Well Gardens in Glastonbury the beauty of the Mother's creation was there to see in its generous abundance and perfection, in the flowers and trees and the winding walkways and rippling waters. Even the bees in Chalice Well are tranquil, not agitated by traffic or other noise. It's a peaceful place.

As the sun went down, people gathered at the Lammas bonfire in Bushey Combe. The night air cooled them and the fire was welcome.

Blessed be my journey.

Blessed be.

Conference takes off!

2006-08-02T17:14:00.001Z

It was unbelievable.

The huge town hall, filled with soft light and colour. The floor to ceiling paintings of the Goddess, flowers, candles, fruit, bright banners: the Madonna, the Neolithic Goddess, more.

And people, people. By the hundred, from a dozen countries or more: Iceland to Ireland, Australia to Austria. You lose count of how many there are. So many, there's hardly room to fit them all in here, standing or sitting. Women, dressed in gold, or not; men smiling, relaxed with themselves. Don't forget the gold nail varnish! We're celebrating Lammas and the Great Mother of the golden harvest.

The Lord Mayor of Glastonbury dressed in his gold chain of office welcomes the delegates. Then Priestess Kathy speaks. 'This isn't about hierarchies,' she says. 'It's about everyone's relationship with the Goddess. Welcome to this journey.'

For many, it's been a very long road already, to end up under this ancient English sky together to manifest Her. But this is just the start.

It was an honour to be there.

Goddess Conference: it starts tomorrow...

2006-07-31T21:37:00.000Z

...with music, ceremonial, workshops, socialising, celebration, challenge, walking the land and more!

It will be a time and a space for the Mother Goddess in the light-filled isle. If you can't be with us, take a look - and send us your thoughts.

Love to everyone, Christina

Glastonbury Goddess Conference

2006-07-28T13:19:00.000Z

On Sunday 30th July the wonderful, transformational experience of the Glastonbury Goddess Conference begins and ends eight days later with a concert of Julie Felix and Alessandra Belloni. Visit the website of the Conference and see all the things that are going on
http://www.goddessconference.com/

Celebrating Lammas, 1 August

2006-07-24T00:50:00.000Z

This one's unmissable, everyone!

A wonderful celebration of Lammas is coming soon...

...with ritual, music and poetry, in the Glastonbury Goddess Temple (which, for anyone who doesn't know, is in the Glastonbury Experience Courtyard, off the High Street), on Tuesday 1 August at 7.30 p.m.

The golden season is here. So come join us for the wonderful celebration of Abundance! Looking forward to seeing you there.

All donations (gold or otherwise) to the new Goddess Temple welcome.

One White Swan Feather

2006-07-23T17:09:00.000Z

One White Swan Feather is the beginning of a sacred journey to make a reality the vision of having a Goddess Temple in Glastonbury England that can meet all the needs of both honouring the sacred feminine and being a resource to all the community.Inspired by Kyle Macdonald and his series of trades and exchanges that went from one red paperclip to finally a house in Saskatchewan, Visit
http://onewhiteswanfeather.blogspot.com
Make your offers please!

Full Moon Oracling

2006-07-13T16:42:00.000Z

On the evening of the July Full Moon the Temple opened its doors to those who wished to come and enter the circle of the Nine Morgen Oracles. Masked and robed the Oracles remain anonymous to those who consult them. This is the energy of transformation, healing and growth of hearing what needs to be heard for the heart and soul of each person. As always this was very busy and more people wanted to visit than time allowed. The next Oracling will be Saturday October 7th.

Initiation at Evening

2006-07-10T00:37:00.000Z

Today was the initiation of the new priestesses in the Temple at Glastonbury. After three years of study and preparation, they were ready to make their vows to the Goddess. Her gentle evening sunshine filled Avalon and warmed the courtyard as Her new devotees declared their service to Her.

Walking home along a Devon road afterwards, priestess trainer Ren Chapman was carrying not only her luggage from the weekend in Glastonbury, but also a huge and beautiful bouquet of flowers, a gift from the students to thank her for her care and wisdom.

Ren lives out in the country, and the beauty of the golden evening and the wide spaciousness of the sky took her breath away. Her heart full, she paused by the river and picked out the loveliest flower in her bouquet. Domnu, Goddess of the Waters, this is for you, she thought. She let the flower drop onto the flowing water and watched it drift away.

Sweet Smells of Goddess Spirituality

2006-07-07T16:25:00.000Z

On Sunday morning in the Goddess Temple the air was an olfactory paradise with Frankincense, Lavender, Larkspur and Roses wafting as the ritual preparation of making incense got under way. The incense is prepared with sacred intent for the coming festival period.

As pestle scraped against mortar the group of nine incense makers chanted, sang and offered prayers and wishes of positive intent into the incense.
These incenses are made to aid meditations uplifting consciousness to higher levels by purifying the atmosphere and self, so when burning the incense be open to receive the energies from it!

Launched! 'Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess'

2006-06-30T17:03:00.000Z

Press, priestesses and well-wishers were at the Georges Room in the Glastonbury Experience courtyard today to celebrate the publication of priestess Kathy Jones's latest book, 'Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess'.

"This feels very, very exciting," Kathy told me. "It's like giving birth to a baby. 'Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess' has been so many years in the making. It's based on ten years' work and it's taken three years to write. I think it's the definitive book on what it means to be a priestess.'

Kathy's no stranger to publishing: this will be her ninth book. And weighing in at 544 pages, it's probably the longest so far.

So where better to bring it to light than the warm June sunshine of the Isle of Avalon?

We wish Kathy good luck and blessings for this book.

If you want to buy it, you can order it, at £14.95 (UK rates) from:
Counterculture, The Long Barn, Sutton Mallet, Bridgwater, TA7 9AD.

Summer Solstice Goddess

2006-06-22T16:15:00.000Z

Summer Solstice evening, and the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury is packed with people once again.

The priestesses are veiled in blue: the blue of rivers, of the ocean, of the evening sky. They sing. 'Sweet Mother Ocean, turquoise Lady. Deep fertile hidden waters, blessed moondance of the sea...'

They smile. One priestess, crowned with a diadem, speaks.

'Summer enters our hearts in this sweet time. The Otherworld is close now. The Moon is a late riser. Into this midsummer magic, we carry the power of our prayers.'

They invoke the many faces of the Goddess: flowing Domnu; Caer, abundant grain mother; Gaia, mother of the earth; Ceridwen, crone goddess of the dark waters. And walking this land, the Lady of Avalon herself.

The priestesses pass round wide glass bowls of water, and we all bless and thank each other.

The oak trees stand quiet and green now in the groves of Chalice Well below the Tor, as the sun goes down and the spring waters flow out through the healing garden. Welcome to summer.

Happy Solstice!

2006-06-21T08:54:00.000Z

Goddess Priestess Pammy and Priest-in-training Andy were up on the Tor this morning for a special reason.

It wasn't just the grey dawn and the groups of people carousing under the fourteenth-century St Michael's Tower. Nor was it the Druids on the other side of the hill, invoking the sun ("The I represents the erect phallus of the God, the A the parted legs of the Goddess, the O the Cosmic Orgasm. Speak the prayer as your conscience dictates!") and handing round a goblet of mead and slices of cake, and scattering red and white roses on the fertile earth of the ancient land.

Pammy and Andy were here to consecrate a marriage with a handfasting.

Manda and Nikk had spent nine months devising their ceremony, a commitment to each other blessed by the Goddess.

Their little children Freia and Jake were cushion-bearers, proudly holding the rings for their mum and dad. Manda's parents had come too, as a special surprise.

'Love one another, but let not your love be a binding together,' began Pammy. As Kahil Gibran's words resonated across the dawning summer land, and they invoked the four directions and the elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire, the blessing of the Goddess came upon them.

'We're so happy. We feel really married now,' said Manda. Though the dawn was so cold, it didn't seem to matter.

Summer Solstice at Glastonbury...

2006-06-19T23:11:00.000Z

...is coming up very soon.

When you go up onto the Tor at dawn, you see the whole Vale of Avalon spread out quietly below you, veiled in grey mist.

And then the sun slips in over the edge of the world.

It's worth the chilly climb, to get to the top for that moment.

Solstice is this Wednesday, 21 June, and we'll be there on Glastonbury Tor at 4.00 a.m. to watch it all happen. We'll also be at the Goddess Temple at 7.30 that evening, where everyone's welcome for the Goddess Solstice celebration.

It's going to be quite a day.

It's official: She needs a new temple

2006-06-19T22:04:00.000Z

It had to happen.

More and more people are turning up at the Glastonbury Goddess Temple.

So many, in fact, that the room above the courtyard in the middle of town is just too small these days. And everyone's hoping for a bigger space.

There are links and a current interview with Glastonbury priestess Kathy Jones about it on the BBC. They think it's an important issue for the spiritual life of Somerset.

Personal Introduction

2006-06-14T14:36:00.000Z

My name is Christina and I'm a writer, medievalist, journalist and teacher.

I first heard of the Goddess movement way back in the 1980s, when we were still all eating brown rice and meditating and wearing tie-dye skirts.

That was before the internet and the web and the whole incredible technological transformation of the world began.

I'd read of Avalon in twelfth-century English manuscripts. I'd been to Glastonbury and drunk the water in the spring sunshine of the secret chalice garden. I'd taken my babies up onto the Tor and looked out over the sacred land.

I'd met priestesses of the Goddess. I knew about the Glastonbury Goddess Conference and the new manifestation of Avalon. As a journalist, I'd written about sacred sites in the West of England and made TV programmes showing them.

Then in 2006, chance brought me to the Glastonbury Goddess Temple. And we had a new idea: to set up a web column, to let everyone know what was going on there.

This is the beginning of that process.

Welcome

2006-06-14T14:21:00.000Z

Welcome to the Glastonbury Goddess Temple, home and focus of the divine feminine: the Goddess.

You might not know Her yet, or you might be looking. Or you might have stumbled across Her, or just be curious.

You might have heard of Glastonbury, home of the famous rock festival, burial-place of King Arthur, a place known as Avalon, mystical island of healing and immortality.

It's a real place.