As we turn the corner into our favourite Bulwarks Lane one January morning Smudger our Dormarth dog bounds ahead sniffing at the dead leaves. In my heart I call to Ariadne. Immediately in a way that still surprises me, she answers my prayer. She appears sparkling in the winter sunlight in the form that I always identify with her, as that of the snake goddess - the bare-breasted, faience figurine of Krete (I spell Krete with a K because the letter is goddess-shaped and I like it). Standing tall in her aproned, seven-tiered skirt, her upraised arms hold wriggling snakes while her entranced eyes stare into an unknown distance. A feline creature, perhaps a lioness or a leopardess perches on her crown. Through these potent years she who I name as Ariadne has been my inspiration, muse and transforming divinity.

Diminished like many another before her by truth-turning Greek tale-tellers, originally Ariadne was a powerful, chthonic goddess of creation. Patriarchal myth-making reduced her to the priestess-daughter of a Minoan king, whose red menstrual skein threaded the mystery maze for the sun hero Theseus. Later she was said to have been abandoned on Dia's shore by the man she had saved from the monstrous Minotaur. But Ariadne is so much more than this.

She is Ariadne, Ariagne, High Fruitful Mother of the Barley, Mother of All, the Very Holy, Very Manifest One, Wise Virgin, Divine Midwife, Lady of the First Light, Queen of the Sun and Moon. She is the River of Creativity, Serpent Mother, Snake Goddess and Lady of Lions. She is Guardian of the divine Bull-man Asterion and Mystress of the Moon Maze or Labrynth, not a spelling mistake but spelled to emphasise her connection to the Kretan House of the Labrys or double axe of the moon. Dionysus, the ecstatic Bull God of the Vine is her sacred marriage partner. Ariadne's celestial home is Corona Ariadnae or Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown known as Caer Arianrhod, for she is also the Keltic (another K I like) Arianrhod of the Silver Wheel, She who closes the door to the Aeon. She is Queen of the Dark and the Light in the Darkness. She is the Dark Light.

I remember the many times when I have felt this divine being as a physical womanly presence, standing right behind me, her hand pressed against the middle of my back heart level. She pushes me forwards when for the sake of a peaceful life, I would far rather stay silent. She forces me to go to places where I would not dare to tread alone. I have felt her cool breath on the back of my neck and the tingle of terror run up and down my spine. I feel it now as I struggle to be true to her and all she has given to me. For I love her.

Walking down the wet lane in the brilliant sunlight, eyes watering, I cannot see who approaches. "Happy New Year" calls out the passing voice as words of a different order fill my mind. The first form of the title of this book begins to drop into my mind - Finding Treasure, the Mystery of the Dark Light.

I love the sound of it. I'm not sure what it actually means but it encompasses the elements that have been part of this magical experience. Often I am so taken with the sounds of words that I don't necessarily understand straight away - phrases which encompass hidden meanings that are sensory rather than intellectual experiences. The final form emerges later, On Finding Treasure - Mystery Plays of the Goddess.

For the whole process of creating sacred drama has been one of finding treasure unexpectedly. None of the amazing things that we have experienced through performing mystery plays within Ariadne's Dark Light energy stream was planned or foreseen. We have learned through experience that there are mysteries in this world too deep for the human mind to predict or fathom, but which the heart knows to be true. It has all just unfolded as we have followed our intuition and continues still.

By my definition intuition is that sphere of reality where truth is. It is an expression of the soul - the eternal spiritual part of ourselves which manifests through human incarnation. Truth is how things are from a wider perspective, one which is not attached to current values or morals, but which follows the natural spiritual laws of the universe. When we listen to our intuition we are listening to the voice of our souls. Learning to hear and act upon intuition is one of the major lessons of human life, maybe never more so than at the present time, for it is only the wisdom of our souls which will get us through the current planetary crisis.

The rest of the title follows at other times, the shape of the book unfolding by itself. The writing and the reading of this book must in themselves be magical experiences for both me and you, then we will learn more than we already know. Hopefully we shall perceive something new about intuition, creativity, memory, mythic reality and personal and collective transformation through sacred drama.

Intuition and creativity are inextricably connected, intuition being the invisible bridge across which creative energy flows into expression. Like a jigsaw puzzle the pattern for any production, whether it is of a book or a play or a film, exists first as formless idea in the etheric - the energy system that underlies the physical world. Ideas originate from the energetic impulses, souls and divine beings who people the cosmos, such as you, me and the Lady Ariadne. Our work as co-creators in the world, is to intuit, listen, sense and then call the pieces of the jigsaw into their correct positions, allowing ideas to come into form. As far as I understand the same principles apply to any work of creation, be it a sacred drama, a painting, a library, a university or a temple. It only(!) takes trust in the truth of intuition.

As I have experienced over and over again, creativity itself is an endless river which once awakened, spumes forth and invigorates every thought and action. Dammed, it becomes anger and then depression. The desire to write a book about this mystery we have been involved in over the last thirteen years, has been with me for some time now. It began as a way of explaining to participants the magic of performing sacred drama but inspired by Ariadne it already had a life of its own.

Sacred Drama and Transformation

There are several common reactions to the words sacred drama. The first and most obvious is that by sacred drama I can mean only one thing - religious drama which repeats stories of the lives and actions of the hero/archetypes of conventional religions Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, etc.. This is not what I mean by sacred drama. The simple repetition of patriarchal religious myths and value systems, from early Christian Mystery plays to even the Mahabarata does not hold my interest.

Another response comes from those people who react to the adjective sacred, assuming that anyone using it must be spiritually arrogant, wishing to imply some inadequacy on the part of the reader or listener. They seem to believe that we are in spiritual competition with each other rather than accepting that sacred denotes an attitude of conscious service to the divine. This viewpoint is expressed by both the spiritually inclined and many actors. In the current materialistic climate use of this adjective is deemed to be too precious or simply unnecessary. The argument usually runs as follows Why do you have to use the word sacred? We're all inspired when we perform by something greater than ourselves. All drama is sacred.

I would contest that although individual performers may be inspired by the divine pneuma, very little of the drama we see today in theatre, on television screens or in films could remotely be called sacred. Most of it is performed in service to spurious male, sexual and violent entertainment values, and is dedicated to mammon, glamour and human vanity.

By sacred drama I mean drama that is inspired, written, directed and performed in service to the creative informing energies of the universe. Its purpose is to communicate with and to give expression to the divine as far as we humans are able. The word sacred comes from sacer (L) meaning holy, having the same root as sacrum, the pelvic bones which cradle the womb through which all new human life is conceived, nurtured and born. By sacred drama I mean holy plays rooted in the divine through which new ideas, myths and potencies are brought to birth.

For many this may seem like a presumptuous ideal that only the self-deluded might begin to attempt, but sacred drama is an ancient and honoured form of theatre throughout the rest of the world. For thousands of years among the indigenous peoples of the planet, sacred drama was the only form of theatre. Even today it is the means by which non-literate peoples are entertained and taught the spiritual traditions, values and ethics of their societies. Performed in holy places, dramatic rituals and plays tell the myths of creation and the mysteries of birth, life and death. They give expression to the beings of the invisible worlds - to goddesses, gods, ancestral and other spirits, who might help or hinder the lives of human beings.

Today where these performances survive, among say the Balinese or the Tibetan peoples, these holy plays have traditional forms which are repeated unchanged through the seasons and the years. Costumes and masks that are used over and over in performance become holy objects in themselves. In Bali the wonderful colourful masks of the beneficent male Barong and the evil (female, wouldn't you guess) Rangda - the dangerous spirit of the mountain, are kept in temples and displayed on altar thrones during festivals, when offerings of flowers, fruit, candle-light and incense are made to them. The performers who wear these costumes in the sacred drama must be ritually purified before putting them on so that they can carry the divine energy activated by wearing the masks, without danger to themselves. The traditional temple performances, particularly those which are carried out in the parts of Bali which are off the tourist track, are powerful, healing and magical experiences.

Some of my own understanding of the potency of sacred drama came during a visit in 1986 to watch a play in a remote Balinese village temple. During the performance some of those taking part became obviously entranced. At a certain point towards the end of the ritual drama there was one incredible, numinous moment when time stood still and infinity opened out. Several sick people were healed in that moment. Even though the language was all Balinese that I literally couldn't understand, energetically I could feel what was happening. Everything in the drama had built up to this magic moment when the energy suddenly switched directions (the best way I can describe it) and healing took place. I have remembered that moment when writing and directing Ariadne plays and have structured them to build towards one or more of these heart-stopping moments so that everyone might have this experience of numinosity. It is this experience that brings transformation to both performers and audiences. In Bali I learned that for me drama could not be separated from healing, transformation or the divine. It had to be sacred drama.

However, although indigenous sacred drama may be wonderful to watch in its appropriate setting, for our purposes it has limitations which should not be overlooked. The mythic tales that are told are usually fixed, unalterable, chained to societal ideals which no longer hold truth in the present. Innovation, present creativity and new mythology are not encouraged. Often performances are controlled by a priesthood with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Male hierarchies who wish to maintain power over others like to repeat stories that reinforce their reputed spiritual or moral superiority, forgetting that repetition does not make these tales true. In the present state of the world threatened indigenous peoples must hold onto their identities by maintaining their ancestral customs, dramas and values. However we of the first world whose past and present colonial ambitions have crushed native (of the earth) peoples and their cultures, have an obligation to question such patterns of dominance and hierarchy, since they are the ones which ultimately threaten the survival of humanity. We have a different collective need we have a karmic debt to repay.

From the beginning our focus in Ariadne Productions has been to develop a new kind of sacred drama - one which is aligned to both earth and spirit, which recognises the power of myth within the collective unconscious, which honours imagination as the tool of creativity, which encourages invention, listens to inspiration, recognises the patterns and rhythms underlying all forms, and which is not afraid to challenge conventional attitudes by tinkering with hallowed myth.

The Power of Myth

According to the dictionary myths are simply fictitious narratives involving supernatural characters and embodying popular ideas on natural phenomena (Concise Oxford Dictionary). This is a very limited definition for myths are so much more than this - one might think there was a conspiracy to simplify everything into meaninglessness. Myths are actually truths embodied in non-rational forms which speak directly to the heart rather than to the brain. They are tales which tell of the deeper realities of life and death and the attempts of human beings in different times and places to make sense of those realities. They are an expression of the human spiritual quest.

Throughout time and in all the cultures of the world myths name the great forces of the universe which created the stars, the solar system and planet earth with its oceans and continents, calling them goddesses, gods, titans, giants, ancestors, etc.. Myths describe the evolution of the earth, of plants, animals and human beings, and the great mysteries of birth, sex and death. There are global myths of creation, racial and spatial myths attached to particular places in the world. These myths vary widely in detail but express universal themes. The patterns within them mirror the structures and relationships between the material, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual components of our societies. They are a storytime reflection of the matrix or pattern underlying all forms and give us a way in to the experience of mystery.

Mythic tales are best told by story-tellers or performed as plays for the communities out of which they arise. On the written page they often seem lifeless. It is during performance that they come alive. It is the interaction between the mythic energy, performers, community, colours, costumes, lights and music- the magic of the greasepaint, that allows underlying realities to be experienced directly at a sub-conscious level. In addition when mythic tales are performed in a ritual setting and dedicated to the divine, they become sacred dramas and therefore more potent. I have noticed many times that although people do not necessarily understand with their minds everything that they have seen in a play, on a gut level they have powerful transformative experiences that reverberate through their lives. Ariadne plays have many overlaid themes and esoteric allusions that are too complex to take in on first hearing. They need to be seen several times before they are understood by the brain as well as the heart and even then there is more.

Myths, fairytales and folklore deal with different strands in our unconscious human life. Fairytales and folklore on the whole tell stories which mirror elementary psychological structures within individual human beings, the characters representing different members of our internal families. As Jung and his many followers have shown understanding these inner relationships helps us to develop psychologically as individuals. Myths on the other hand reflect collective forces which condition whole societies. They deal with the larger issues, which often do not seem to follow human value systems, but have their own validity.

Myths help to condition our cultures and in turn are shaped by them. Most importantly mythic reality itself is not static and fixed, but like the rest of nature is subject to ebb and flow and change. All the ancient myths we now have, have been handed down through the generations from one story-teller to the next, only in relatively recent times being committed to writing. They have always been changed in the telling and some have been changed deliberately in pursuit of political and religious power. Politicians and religious leaders are usually skilful manipulators of myth, each believing that what they are doing is for the good of society. As a playwright I have a keen interest in re-membering myth to reveal new truths. As a myth-maker producing powerful drama in a ritual setting I must continually be aware of and question my own motives in so doing. I have two main purposes, one is to help create a new mythos - a psychic framework for the present and future, within which the good, the true and the beautiful in all humanity may express itself. The second is to create opportunities for individual and collective transformation.

Within Ariadne Productions our aim is to re-examine the myths and religious ideals which structure our unconscious lives, bringing them into consciousness, to make us aware of why we act as we do both as individuals and collectively. Unlike traditional sacred drama we are not just retelling the stories of old, but we are deliberately reworking the ancient myths into new patterns within a magical ritual setting. We are making magic!

For example, one of our central themes is the rebalancing of the unconscious archetypes which for five thousand years have glorified a dominant male divinity, values and ways of being and oppressed! suppressed female divinity, values and ways of being. This unbalanced energy has informed the collective unconscious for the last five thousand years with now near-disastrous consequences for our Mother Earth. The ways in which we have named our gods and goddesses (if we name the latter at all) is a reflection of these power structures, which are also expressed in the relationships between women and men. In societies where men see themselves and are educated to feel spiritually superior to, better than, more evolved than, more detached than, less emotional than women, the divine force is usually seen as male and called God, Allah, Buddha, etc.. Since there are relatively few societies in the modern world where women see themselves as superior (although this is changing in the minds of individual women), where the divine force is female and called Goddess, comparisons are difficult to make. There are indications in tribal societies that where Goddess is worshipped the underlying gender archetypes are in fact more balanced and equal and power is shared.

The effects of these unconscious power structures can be seen throughout our societies. For example, the theatre world itself is riddled with the effects of unbalanced male-female energies, from the male hierarchies who own the theatres, film and TV companies, to the men who choose the kinds of entertainment that ever reach public theatre or television, to the financial structures that govern what is viable and therefore what we can see, to the relatively few women writers, directors, producers and performers, to the small range of parts that women can play, to the paucity of the themes explored, to the very ways in which we perceive what a good play is, and to the ways in which our eyes are conditioned to see images, both in the theatre and on television. All are still dominated by a male perspective which seeks to maintain its own survival. In our culture we are all conditioned by power-over hierarchical values and systems, both women and men, and they no longer serve us or the Earth.

Through sacred drama we are attempting to make some difference to this situation using the magical skills we have, both individually and collectively, in the small potent town of Glastonbury in which we live. Our purpose is to enscribe a mythic framework for an equal partnership between women and men, where all human beings are empowered to be truly themselves. Our plays, performances and videos give direct expression to long hidden aspects of the divine feminine - Goddess, and to the divine masculine - God, as images, archetypes, muse and transforming divinities.

Ariadne Productions

Ariadne Productions is a loose-knit association of people living in and around Glastonbury in the Summerland of England, who have discovered the magic of sacred drama. There is a central core of about ten people who have been involved in most productions, who through experience have learned something of the mystery. These include musicians - those who keep the rhythm, production people - those who create the space, and performers - those who invoke the energies. For each production new performers and artists, both amateur (those who do it for love) and professional talents, are drawn from the wider Glastonbury community. Over the years several hundred people have participated in the sacred dramas and been touched by the numinous essence that is Ariadne.

Although I am the animateur (one who enlivens) for Ariadne Productions as well as being the principle playwright, director and sometime performer, in my understanding I am not Ariadne Productions. Ariadne is a divine energy stream to which performers and production people align themselves for varying lengths of time. It is this alignment to the divine Ariadne, via the vehicle of Ariadne Productions, that allows spiritual transformation to take place. In my experience this transformation always occurs. Its power and impact are dependent on the degree of consciousness that the individual brings to their role within the production.

At each first play reading we warn everyone that participation in an Ariadne Production will change their lives, but most people don't really believe it. Professional actors in particular feel they can remain detached from change. Regrettably they are beyond transformation. Amateurs are more concerned with their fears of performing live on stage, or just disagree. After all it's only a play, isn't it? But it's not. This is sacred drama and there are definite synchronistic effects in people's personal lives. Often people find themselves living out their mythic role in their personal lives with consequences that can be challenging. No role should be taken lightly or unconsciously, but the personal meanings need to be actively sought. Ritual performance provides the perfect opportunity to publicly express and thereby transform hidden, often shadow, unconscious and sometimes super-conscious material. This is one of the main purposes of participation.

As with indigenous sacred drama the transformational impact of the plays is increased when they are performed at spiritually potent times of the year. With the earth at the centre of our focus and not attaching ourselves to any religious belief system, there are two natural cycles that have great psychic(of the soul) and physical effects on us all. These are caused by the movement of the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth. Within these cycles there are nodal points where spiritual and physical energies become stronger, where it can be said that the veil separating the visible and invisible worlds gets thinner. In the lunar cycle these nodal points occur at each new and full moon. In the solar cycle these nodal points occur every six weeks or so at the solstices and equinoxes and at the cross-quarter festivals. All Ariadne plays have been performed in relation to these spiritually potent times of the year.

So far the plays have all been rehearsed and first performed in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms, which is a beautiful though dilapidated 19th century building which lies between the High Street and Glastonbury Abbey. Built on sacred ground and to golden mean proportions the main hall is a wonderful place in which to perform. In the past it was the scene of Rutland Boughton's operatic performances in the 1920's and the birthplace of the English Rural Music festivals. In the present it is home to Glastonbury's alternative community and provides a venue for music, drama, workshops and conferences. The Assembly Rooms are remarkable for several reasons. The building itself though in need of repair is special, acting as a psychic amplifier for whatever is going on within it. The effect can be positive, greatly enhancing performances, atmosphere and experiences, or it can be negative, emphasising bad temper and conflicts.

As a community building it is remarkable for the numbers of good people who over the years have voluntarily given their time and talents in trying to create a thriving community centre with an emphasis on the sacred arts. The people who work there must daily apply their spiritual principles to creatively resolve problems. Ariadne Productions began and flourished within this dynamic situation.

Although community drama involving large numbers of local people has become popular over the last ten years particularly in southwest Britain, I believe that in Ariadne Productions we are original in our approach. We are unique in our emphasis on sacred drama, rather than simply community drama, consciously affecting the spiritual as well as the social life of the community. We are unique in that each play is inspired from the Dream - waking and sleeping. They are re-membrances (in the sense of the pieces being put back together in an original order) of mythic tales and their relevance to present day reality is emphasised. All participants are selected intuitively, based on their rightness for their role rather than their observed ability to act, play music, paint, etc.. Everything that happens during a production is respected as part of the transformative process including all the challenges that arise.

Finally all of our productions have been created within the temenos of Glastonbury known for centuries as the Isle of Avalon. Avalon is a mythical Otherworldly place that lies outside the normal experiences of time and space. Avalon means Isle of Apples - the goddess's magical fruit of immortality, which she gives to those who go in search of her. The Isle of Avalon is also known as the Western Isle of the Dead to which the wounded King Arthur was ferried across the water in a boat by three Faerie Queens, Crones or Ravens. It is said that Arthur and Guinevere still lie here sleeping until the time comes when they awaken to aid in the rebirth of the British Isles. This sacred Isle of the Dead is ruled by the sisterhood of the Nine Morgens, the most famous of whom is Morgen La Fee - Morgana or Morgaine, the maligned Faerie half-sister to Arthur. The entrance to the Underworld on Glastonbury Tor is guarded by the Keltic Lord of Death, Gwyn C Nudd.

For me Avalon is a parallel mythic reality that exists today side by side and intermingled with the everyday world, only separated from it by an etheric veil. This veil becomes permeable as we consciously develop our spiritual practice through meditation, service and working with spiritual energy. We can also temporarily pass through this misty veil at those times of the year that are spiritually potent. The sacred landscape of Glastonbury is one of the places on the planet where this can happen accidentally or purposefully. Many people come here for that experience. Ariadne's plays give people experiences of that Otherworld and of the beings who live beyond the veil.

Mythically the Isle of Avalon is a place of death, transformation and rebirth and those who come to visit or live in Glastonbury, experience over and over this process of regeneration. It is no accident that so far all of our plays have been created within the sacred landscape of Avalon, dealing as we do with themes of psychological and spiritual transformation and the mysteries of this earthly life. In my understanding performing sacred drama within this mythic landscape of the Isle of Avalon, has psychic effects which ripple outwards through the ethers, as well as the usual physical channels into the wider world. As we are changed so the world around us changes.

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