CHALICE WELL
 Chalice
Well is to be found at the foot of Chalice Hill where the Red Waters
of Birth and Menstruation flow from Her body at a constant rate of 25,000
gallons an hour and at a temperature of 52 degrees F. Full of the iron
of Her blood these are healing waters, which in the 18th century brought
people in their thousands to drink and bathe in search of miracle cures.
For a time there was a deep and cold healing pool in which the sick could
immerse themselves. It is now covered over.
Chalice Well lies in a beautiful garden cared for by the Chalice Well Trust
and founded in 1958 by Wellesley Tudor Pole. The Red Spring fills a five-sided
chamber and flows underground to the Lion's head, where its water can be drunk.
The waters flow down through the gardens splashing into a large Vesica Piscis
shaped basin, near the gate, before flowing out beneath the town, along Chilkwell
Street, and to the Abbey.
In the lower part of the Chalice Well Gardens the red Blood waters of Birth
and Menstruation flow through the Yoni of the Goddess, symbolised by the Vesica
Piscis.
 The symbol of the Vesica Piscis
pierced by a sword, on the Chalice Well cover, was given by Frederick
Bligh Bond, who first excavated the Abbey in the 1910s.
The Vesica Piscis is the symbol of the Chalice Well,
which decorated the wrought iron well-cover given by Frederick Bligh
Bond, who first excavated the Abbey. The Vesica Piscis symbol is composed
of two interlocking circles, whose overlapping arcs form the Yoni or
Vulva of the Goddess. This symbol represents both our birthplace into
earthly existence from the Womb of the Goddess and the gateway to spiritual
knowledge through Her Yoni, through sexual union with Her.
On the Well cover this Vulva is pierced by a sword, a violent metaphor for
the Phallus of the God. It is time that such swords were turned into ploughshares.
"Plough
my Vulva,
man of my heart,
plough my Vulva"
sang the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven, Earth and the Underworld.
In the lower Chalice Garden it is the Red Blood water of birth and of menstruation,
which as we all know, flows through the Vulva.
 Yew
trees have long been associated with the Red Spring. The remains
of ancient yew trees at least 2,500 years old were found around
the well and today large yew trees still grow in the gardens. The
yew tree is sacred to the Triple Death Goddess, Hecate. Its bark,
sap and berries are red. Its place in the Celtic Tree Calendar
is the day before the Winter Solstice, the most deathly day of
the year.
The Blood Spring rises in the beautiful
Chalice Well Gardens which lie between Chalice Hill and the Tor.
These gardens are open daily (afternoons only in winter) for peaceful
contemplation.
In women the red blood of menstruation marks another
cyclic death. The monthly sloughing off of the red blood cells of the
womb is death to the egg or any new life that may be hidden there. Menstruation
is a time of dying, at the same time releasing the creative energy of
the life that has been lost. Menstruation also indicates fertility. The
menarche, the onset of menstruation in young women, indicates the beginning
of the physically fertile phase of life as the menopause indicates its
ending. So the blood of menstruation signals both physical and psychic
fertility and death.
The Red Water which flows continuously from the Womb of Mother Earth symbolises
birth, fertility and death. The Blood Spring is dedicated to the Death Goddess
in three aspects, as the Maiden, Mother and Crone.
Chalice Well is the Well of the Grail, the Chalice and the Cauldron,
the three kinds of Feminine Knowing – the Grail of the Maiden,
the Chalice of the Mother and the Cauldron of the Crone. It is
the perfect place to let things
die, to give them away to the water and to the earth, to experience Her
fertile Nature in the beautiful elemental gardens and to be reborn.
THE ISLE OF APPLES
Avalon means the Isle of Apples, a fruit sacred to the Dark Goddess. Celtic Kings received the Goddess's magical apples of immortality and went away to live with Her in the Hollow Hills. An apple was given to the Kings of Britain to signify their sacred marriage to the Goddess of the land. The apple which Eve gave to Adam was the maligned Goddess's sacred fruit of eternal life.
Cutting an apple across reveals the magical pentacle
of the core, the Virgin Kore, Morgana, the underworld Goddess hidden
within Demeter, the Earth Mother. This five-pointed star in a circle
was the Egyptian hieroglyph for the underworld womb of transformation.
Avalon is such a place of transformation.
(above) The Isle of Avalon means the Isle of
Apples and today the slopes of the island are still covered in
small apple orchards. Photo by Simant Bostock.
 (left)
Cutting an apple across reveals the fivefold pips which form a
pentacle, the symbol of Kore, the Dark Virgin Goddess. Apples were
thereby thought to be dangerous fruit.
Apple games are played on Hallowe'en at the end of
October, during the Samhain Festival, which is sacred to the Crone
Goddess. In patriarchal folklore apples were dangerous fruit, the Old
Woman's apple was often poisonous.
Today many small apple orchards are still to be found covering the lower slopes
of the Isle of Avalon.
THE CRONE GODDESS
 The Goddess appears in many forms in Avalon. From the flat Summerland meadows
She is the Mother giving birth to her daughter the Maiden. But looking down
from above at the contours of the island, She is the ancient Crone Goddess
riding on the back of a Swan, bringing with Her death and regeneration into
the future.
In the landscape of the Crone, the Tor with its ancient terracing is Her ever-pregnant
womb. Chalice Hill is Her soft nourishing breast. The Red waters of Chalice
Well are the constant bloodflow from Her womb. The White Spring is Her fertile
essence. Her head with its crown and pointed nose is Windmill Hill where many
people live and there is a good view in all directions. Her crooked body is
formed by the undulations of Stonedown.
(below) This model of the contours
of the Isle of Avalon by Simant Bostock reveals the outline
of an old Crone, riding on the back of a Swan. Photo by Simant.
The Crone is the Death aspect of the Goddess, full of the wisdom
of age and the nearness of death. Goddess of the Waning and
Dark Moon She is the
Hag, experienced by women as heightened psychic sensitivity during menstruation
and after the menopause. Sometimes beautiful, often ugly, She is frightening
to many. She rules over Annwn the Underworld. She is known by various names,
such as Morgana, the Grandmother Goddess Ana, the Invincible Queen Death.
She is the Triple Goddess Hecate and the black screaming hag Cerridwen.
She is the Morrigu, the Death Goddess appearing in battle in the form of
a raven.
In the legends of Glastonbury She is Morgan le Fey or Morgan the Fate,
sister to King Arthur and Queen of the Dead. She was one of three Faerie
Queens, who ferried the mortally wounded King Arthur in their Moonboat,
to the enchanted Isle of the Dead. Sometimes She is a Ninefold Goddess.
Nine Sisters called Morgen who rule the Western Isles of the Dead.
(above) The sun shines over the soft breast
of the Crone Goddess of Glastonbury. A place to lie upon and
dream beside Her Womb Tor, a place of gestation from which souls
are reborn. Photo by Simant Bostock.
(below) Morgana, Queen of Faerie,
ferries the dying in Her Moonboat across the water to the Isle
of the Dead. Famed and frightening She rules the Isle of Avalon.
Morgana as Mother Death cast the destroying curse on all mortals, though
Her favoured lovers were promised immortality in Her paradise. Morgan sat
at the head of the table of the Green Knight presiding over the death and
resurrection of the year Gods as they beheaded each other in due season.
Gawain's shield bore the pentacle of Morgan, the underworld Kore on a blood-red
background.
(below right) Hecate is the Triple
Death Goddess, who lives on an island guarded by Willow trees.
In the ancient calendar Her day is the one before the Winter
Solstice. She holds the keys to safe passage through the
Underworld.
As Hecate She is the darkness before the New Moon appears. She is the Moon
Goddess of the Witches and Queen of all Hags. Statues of the Triple Goddess
have three heads of a dog, a serpent and a horse. She has six arms carrying
Her sacred symbols – three Torches to illuminate the Way in the Underworld,
Her Athame of Ritual, Her Key to the secret passageways, and the Scourge
with which She whips souls into Her Underworld realm. When souls arrive at
the triple cross-roads of the Underworld it is Hecate who decides which realm
they are fit for – the Asphodel Meadows of the Grey Annwn, the dark
waters of the Black Annwn or the Apple orchards of the Middle Light. As an
archetype She is vital to the understanding of our unconscious natures.
 The
Crone is also Mary Magdalena in Her role as the Death Goddess.
It is She who anoints the Chosen One with oil, signifying the Sacrifice
to be made. In paintings and sculptures the Magdalena often appears
with a skull at Her feet. For many She is the main incarnation
of the Black Goddess, the Sophia or wisdom of the Gnostics.
This painting of Mary
Magdalene on the front of the altar in the Church dedicated
to Her at
Rennes-le-Chateau in France, shows Her with a skull at Her
feet, symbol of the Death Goddess.
FESTIVAL OF THE DEATH GODDESS
Samhain is the autumn Feast of the Dead coming
at the midway point between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice.
It is celebrated on Oct 31st, Nov 1st and 2nd. Echoes of this ancient
festival come down to us in Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night. Samhain
is the Celtic New Year when the shortening days and dying vegetation
mark the end of the old year and the beginning of the new and a
time of dormancy and hidden changes.
On Hallowe'en children dress as witches, crones, warlocks and demons. Pumpkins,
shaped like cauldrons are hollowed out and given Her face to ward off evil
spirits. We bob beneath the water for Her magical apples of immortality. This
is the night when the veil separating the visible and invisible worlds becomes
thinner and the whole supernatural force is attracted to this seam between
two years. It is now that we must face our demons and our fears. It is a time
when anything can happen.
The ancient feast of the Death Goddess still includes the ritual burning of
the annual Year King sacrifice, now known as Guy Fawkes, but continuing an
ancient tradition. We throw apple halves marked with the Dark Goddess's magical
pentacle, to our loved ones across the Bonfire – Her good fire. It is
in our relationships that the Dark Goddess often shows Her power confronting
us with our hidden darkness.
 As
Cerridwen, the Death Goddess is the fearsome corpse-eating Sow,
which is the waning Moon. It was into Her Cauldron of Regeneration
that the Celts believed all souls must pass before re birth. This
Cauldron was also a Cauldron of Inspiration. One of Her sons, Gwion
received his inspiration through drinking three drops of the mead
of wisdom, brewed in Her Cauldron. He became the poet Taliesin.
The Cauldron of the Crone – a
Cauldron of Death. Regeneration and Inspiration.
Glastonbury is the Cauldron of the Crone, a great melting pot of regeneration
and inspiration for the people who come here.
This is the time of year when the clouds roll in across the flat Summerland
and the mists thicken, shrouding the magical island and its secrets, concealing
the landscape. Winter is approaching with its short cold days, bare landscape
and darkness.
THE CRONE AND THE SWAN
In the landscape of Glastonbury the Crone Goddess
rides on the back of a Swan flying to the South West. Wearyall
Hill is the Swan's outstretched neck and head, while the town and
the lower slopes of the island form Her Body. The South West is
the direction of the Dream, where the Kachinas, who are the Keepers
of the Sacred Dream, live. To fly in this direction is to touch
the Future.
 The
Swan is the ancient Bird and Snake Goddess in one form, with Her
bird's body and Her snake-like neck. Her presence is felt everywhere – on
earth, in the skies and beyond the clouds, beyond the upper waters
where the primordial Waters of Life lie. She rules over the Life-giving
force of water. Swans have always lived in the rivers and rhynes
of the Summerland marshes. For human beings they symbolise a life-long
devotion that continues through the years.
In Glastonbury the old Crone Goddess rides
upon the back of the Swan, who is Brigit. They fly to the Southwest
where the Kachinas who are the Keepers of the Sacred Dream, live.
Brigit is known as the White Swan. She shows
by example the entrance into the Future. By following the Swan,
we descend to the Dark Goddess whom She carries on her Back, to
be reborn with inspiration and renewed creativity. As the Crone
governs Samhain and the White Swan governs Imbolc, we meet this
powerful combination of Goddesses during the winter months in Avalon.
 THE
TOR GODDESS
From a distance the most noticeable feature on
the Isle of Avalon is the Tor as She rises out of the flat Summerlands.
She sits like a Great Goddess, a huge bounteous female figure in
the middle of a landscape bowl or Cauldron. To see Her is to love
Her. To the north the Mendip Hills form the rim of the Cauldron
while smaller hills lie to the south and east. Stretching out towards
the west the land is below sea level.
Her Body is bounteous, fleshy, full of dips
and folds. Her large belly, hips and thighs emphasise Her full
sexual nature. She is the fecund Goddess of Love, Rhiannon, Aphrodite,
Venus, the Morning and the Evening Star. She is Kundalini, rising
Serpent Goddess of sexual energy and wisdom. She calls all to
union, at-onement with Her. She is Goddess of the waxing Moon.
Experienced by women during ovulation, She is full of desire,
wisdom and creative potential.
The Tor Goddess – a
sculpture by Phillipa Bowers, a well-known local sculptor,
who has created many beautiful images of the Goddess.
 There
are many legends surrounding the Tor. It is one of the Hollow
Hills where the Faerie Folk now live with their Queen, forced
into exile when human beings forgot to acknowledge them. It was
around such a Hollow hill at Beltane, that Pwyll, King of the
Summerland adoringly followed the Goddess Rhiannon, as She rode
on Her white horse. No matter how fast Pwyll rode, Rhiannon always
remained the same distance away from him, until he said the right
words – "Rhiannon, stop for me". Rhiannon was
then happy to stop for him. Their love for each other became
legendary.
Rhiannon of the Birds is the Virgin (meaning complete within Herself) Goddess
of sexual love, tied to no man, free to love whom She chooses.
Veiled in white She rides a white horse. She is the original powerful sexual
image for all brides, now degraded in the patriarchy to symbolising a non-sexual
virgin bride who loses her right to sexual freedom when she marries. She
belongs to her husband. Rhiannon is also the archetype for Lady Godiva,
the shameless woman who rides naked beneath a veil upon a white horse.
"Ride a cock horse to
Banbury Cross
To see afine Lady ride on a white horse
With birds as Her halo
and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever She goes"
 Rhiannon
of the Birds, the White Mare from the Sea is the Virgin Goddess
of sexual love. She is Virgin, meaning She is Complete within
Herself. She is not chaste but a fully sexual being.
Somewhere upon the slopes of the Tor lies the entrance
to the Underworld of Annwn and the Cauldron of the Dark Goddess.
It may be near Her heart or through Her Yoni. There are tales of
subterranean tunnels and caves where strange apparitions lurk, of
people who went into the Tor through the hidden entrances, only to
return years later old and white-haired or mad. On the north side
of the Tor is a manhole cover, where the sound of continuously roaring
water can be heard. Beneath this cover is a room belonging to the
Water Authority, full of dials and wheels which control the water
flow in the reservoir beneath the Tor. Seeing this room makes the
idea of underground tunnels seem real.
 This
universal sevenfold Labrynth pattern is found on coins from
ancient Krete, on rocks at Tintagel in Cornwall and as the
symbol for the Earth Mother among the Hopi Indians of North
America
It is not only the underground world of the Tor which holds a
mystery. Upon the surface of the Tor there are seven levels of
terracing, some easy to see and some lost in part by erosion. These
are the present remains of a great three-dimensional maze based
upon the same pattern as the ancient Kretan Labrynth of the Goddess.
This pattern appears on coins from Krete, one of the major civilisations
of the Goddess in the ancient world, on rocks at Tintagel and is
found among the Hopi Indians as a symbol for Mother Earth.
 The
Goddess as Vulva. A large engraving of the sexual Goddess found
in the dolmen of Luffang-en-Crach at Carnac in France.
The maze is a single pathway which winds back and forth seven times
around the steep slopes of the Tor to the centre. The path must be
retraced on the way out. There is no choice to be made in the pattern
of this maze only to follow, the path and to continue when the going
gets tough.
The entrance to the labrynth lies at the western end of the Tor
near the bottom of Wellhouse Lane, and is marked by large fallen
standing stones. The first turning of the maze is on the third level
counting up from the bottom of the Tor and marked by a stone. The
labrynth follows a pattern of 3 2 1 4 7 6 5, ending
on the fifth outer circuit. It is here that psychically or in the
past physically the journeyer in the maze, enters Her Body, near
to Her heart. This maze pattern lures the lover of the Goddess to
their psychic death within Her depths.
On Krete the pattern of this maze was received by the priestess in ritual communion
with Ariadne as the Snake Goddess, source of inspiration and creative sexual
energy. The Labrynth was laid out as a ritual dance floor and was sacred to
the Moon Goddess in Her three aspects. The sacred Bull horns shaped like the
Moon and symbol of the Taurean epoch were to be found at the centre. The ancient
Crane dance which uses combinations of nine steps, representing the Ninefold
Goddess, was danced into and out of this maze.
 The
Tor Maze. The pattern of a great three-dimensional maze is marked
by terraces on the slopes of the Tor. This maze is based on the
Kretan Labrynth or Moon-maze of the Goddess.
The labrynth took on a much more sinister meaning when the Minotaur
the dangerous god/man/animal was imprisoned at the centre of a three
dimensional Labrynth. The whole story symbolises the takeover of
the major peaceful Goddess civilisation by the invading brutalising
forces of patriarchy.
 Oracular
snakes curl around the crescent-curved arms of Ariadne the Kretan
Moon Goddess. She is our Goddess of inspiration and the creative
serpent power of Kundalini.
Like all mazes the journey to the centre is a journey into the Self
to face the divine Goddess and/or the dangerous Minotaur. The seven
levels can be viewed as the seven chakras with their associated qualities.
They can also be seen as different physical, emotional, mental, psychological
and spiritual states which alter as we change direction within the
maze and as we climb up and down the slopes of Her Body. The Labrynth
represents the fixed pattern of our destiny in Herworld. We cannot
change its direction only how we live it.
 The
course of the Tor Labrynth is described in Geoffrey Ashe's booklet, The
Glastonbury Tor Maze. It takes approximately two and a
half hours to walk into the centre of the maze and an hour and
a half
to walk out. Wear supportive shoes as the walking is all at an
angle. It is a ritual maze and needs to be walked with awareness
and reverence.
It is a sacred rite of passage.
Snake Goddess by Phillipa
Bower
FESTIVAL OF THE VIRGIN GODDESS
BELTANE
 Beltane
is the fourth Fire Festival which lies at the midway point between
the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. It is celebrated on April
30th, May 1st and 2nd. In Britain it marks the fullness of Springtime
and the season of sexual love for plants, animals and humans.
Ishtar was the Great Whore
of Babylon, the Mother of Harlots. Men communed with Her through
the sexual rites of Her harlot-priestesses. Like the Sumerian Goddess
Inanna, She too descended to the Underworld to rescue Her son-lover
Tammuz. Her Underworld counterpart is Ereshkigal, the Death Goddess.
Beltane is a time of celebration of the May Queen, the Virgin Goddess
of sexual love, Maia. She is Virgin meaning unmarried and sexual. Holy
Virgin was a title given to the harlot-priestesses of Ishtar, Asherah
and Aphrodite, who dispensed the Mother's Grace through sexual worship.
They were healers, prophets, dancers, Brides of God. The May Queen
is Rhiannon, Blodeuwedd or Olwen, the Flower Goddess. Under Christianity
the Virgin Goddess was split into two – the non-sexual Virgin
Mary Mother of God and Mary Magdalene the Whore. It was a case of divide
and rule.
 (left)
The Flower Goddess from Cyprus, 5th century BC.
(below) Sheela-na-gig figures
are found in many parts of Ireland and in a few churches in England,
such as St Mary and St David's at Kilpeck, Herefordshire. The Goddess
displays Her Yoni, the place of power. They resemble statues of
Kali in Hindu temples where visitors lick a finger and touch the
Yoni 'for luck'.
The Whore, who has been much maligned, is also known as the Black Goddess and
the Black Virgin. She is the Sophia of the Gnostics, the Shekina of the Jews.
She is the hidden, sexual, despised because She is too powerful, aspect of
the Mary Goddess. It was the Magdalena who was the Lover and Companion to
Jesus. The Whore is the Other face of the Crone Goddess, Her polar opposite
in the yearly cycle. She is the Goddess who leads us through sexual passion
to spiritual transformation. She shows the way to union with the Goddess
through sexual union between women and men.
By tradition in Avalon women meet in the daylight beside the Blood Spring of
Chalice Well to welcome the Goddess of Springtime. on April 30th. May Eve is
Walpurgisnacht, the night when the witches fly around the Hollow Hills. It
is a splendid time to walk into the centre of Her Maze upon the Tor, walking
out of the Maze either with the dawn on Mayday or later at the end of Beltane.
It is the night when a fire burns on the Tor and lovers jump over the fire
together, pledging their faithful love for a year and a day to be renewed or
abandoned on the next Beltane. It is the time for the Sacred Marriage, a union
in the Sight of the Goddess.
For a few years, each Beltane, a branch of the Druid order laid out
a ribbon Maze on the slopes of the Tor. The new May Queen danced Her
way into the centre of the Maze, changing places with the May Queen
of the old year, who danced out of the maze. The May Queen brings with
Her flowering sprigs of hawthorn. Hawthorn blossoms were reputed to
smell of women's sexual emanations and were used in the orgiastic cult
of the Goddess Cardea.
 The
Holy Thorn of Glastonbury on Wearyall Hill which blooms at the
Winter Solstice and in May. The thorn blossom is sacred to the
orgiastic Goddess Cardea. Its flowers are a reminder in the darkest
days of winter of the sexual promise of the May Queen. Photo
Simant Bostock.
The Holy Thorn of Glastonbury which flowers in May and at Christmas,
when a sprig is sent to the Queen, was reputedly brought to Glastonbury
by Joseph of Arimethea. It is probably another patriarchal story built
upon an earlier celebration of the union between the sacred King and
the Goddess of the land. The royal sprig is a reminder in the depths
of winter of the promises made in the Sacred Marriage between King
and Goddess and of the fertile springtime sexuality of the Goddess.
Beltane was the time when the Sacred Marriage took place between the Goddess
and Her Chosen Consort, who would rule with Her for a day or a week or a year.
In memory of this, small oat cakes are given out to the people. One is marked
beneath with a cross or a coin is hidden inside. The person who bites into this
cake is the Chosen One, who will carry the divine energy for the coming time.
In times past this person would be sacrificed at the end of their royal reign.
Nowadays to be Chosen signifies a special time of inspiration and duty to the
Goddess.
 (right)
The hot cross buns of Easter are a reminder of a much earlier mystery
in which a hidden cross marked one bun out of many. It was the
Goddess of Fate who determined which person would bite into it
and so become the Chosen Consort to the Goddess, the Year King
Sacrifice.
(left) The serpent of creative
energy issues forth from the Yoni of the Goddess. A 19th century
sculpture from Southern India.
On Mayday, there is dancing round the Maypole, symbol of the fertilising
Lingam plunged into the Body of Mother Earth. It is a day when many
lovers walk upon the Tor.
FESTIVALS OF THE MOON GODDESS
The Moon Goddess is usually seen as a Triple Goddess, whose qualities
correspond to the phases of the moon as we see Her in the sky. She
is Artemis, the Virgin Huntress, Goddess of the New Moon. She is Anu,
Isis, Cybele, Mother Goddess of the Full Moon. And She is Hecate or
Hel, Crone Goddess of the Waning or Dark Moon.
The Moon Goddess could more accurately be described as a fivefold Goddess.
She is Goddess of the New Moon, the Waxing Moon, the Full Moon, the Waning
Moon and the Dark or Hidden Moon. In each lunar cycle of 28-29 days She presents
Her five faces to the earth. The Festivals of the Moon Goddess take place at
each of the thirteen New and Full Moons in every year.
The cycle of the Moon Goddess is potent because She symbolises the journey
of all forms of Life, from birth to fruition and death, and then regeneration.
Her lunar cycle forms the basis of all rites of passage and initiatory experiences.
The Moon Goddess is a powerful teacher who has long been part of the Avalonian
experience. She is easily visible from all parts of the Island.
She is particularly connected to women through the inter- weaving of the Moon
and menstruation cycles. She is connected to men through the unconscious experiences
of their ovulating and menstruating anima or soul.
 The
New Moon Festivals of the year are usually celebrated at the Sacred
Springs of the Goddess. There are ceremonies in which Holy Water
is drunk and the Goddess's blessing is received. At New Moon the
moon and sun are to be found in the same Zodiacal sign in the heavens.
The energy of the New Moon is qualified by sign of the Zodiac into
which falls. The New Moon festival is a three day experience with
one day of preparation, one day of communion and one day of expression.
The Amazons worshipped
Artemis as the Virgin Goddess of the New Moon, She was also Goddess
of the Wild Animals and of the Hunt. To the Romans She was Diana
and was worshipped at Ephesus in the form of Many-breasted Artemis,
a figure covered in breasts.
 (left)
Isis was the Moon Goddess of the Egyptians. She was the sister
and spouse to Osiris, God of the Moon and later the Sun, and
mother of Horns the young Moon, later the ascendant Sun. Her
head-dress of Hathor's cow horns of the crescent Moon enclose
a Lunar disc.
The Festivals of the Full Moon are often celebrated around a fire,
with feasting, dancing and singing. There is communion with the Full
Moon Goddess and transmission of Her energy through the group into
the world. Full Moon is also Full Sun and the sun and moon are to
be found in opposite signs of the Zodiac. The energy of the Full
Moon is qualified by both its own sign and that through which the
sun is passing.
 In
a more meditative phase, Full Moon festivals are five day events
with two days leading up to the day of Full Moon for preparation,
cleansing of the temple, meditation and prayer; the day of the
Full Moon as a day of communion with Her; and the two following
days for creative expression and manifestation of the energy received.
Black Kali is the Crone
Moon Goddess, an eater of the dead. She sits impaled upon Shiva
in his corpse aspect. Frightening and fearsome She haunts the
Dreamworld, but holds the key to transformation. Bengal 18th
Century.
RELEVANT REFERENCES
For Inspiration
Descent to the Goddess by Sylvia Brinton
Perrera, Inner City Books
Fruits of the Moon Tree by Alan Bleakley, Gateway Books
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth by D Wolkstein and S N
Kramer, Rider
The Triple Goddess by A. Maclean, Hermetic Research Series
The White Goddess by Robert Graves, Faber
The Women's Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends by Barbara
Walker, Harper and Row
Women's Mysteries by M Esther Harding, Rider
Kathy Jones' Books
The
Ancient British Goddess – Her Myths, Legends and Sacred Sites
110pp, fully illustrated £6.50
Spinning
the Wheel of Ana – A Spiritual Quest to find the Primal British Ancestors
262pp, 100+ drawings & photos £11.95
All from Ariadne Publications
I would like to acknowledge my gratitude for all that Glastonbury has brought
to me so far in my life. My love and thanks to my children, lona and Torquil,
to my lovely partner Mike Jones, to my Hag sisters, Diana Griffiths and Pauline
Watson, and to all those wonderful people who have been a part of Ariadne
Productions, without whom life would have been dull.
I am aware in writing this book that the emphasis is almost completely upon
the Goddess and upon women. This is not to deny the inherent equality between
the Goddess and the God, between women and men, but to redress an imbalance
of perspective several thousand years old.
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