Glastonbury Zodiac: A Story of a Portal of Sacred Experiences
Glastonbury Zodiac: A Story of a Portal of Sacred Experiences
According to Ancient-wisdom.com:
“A landscape zodiac (or terrestrial zodiac) is a map of the stars on a gigantic scale, formed by features in the landscape, such as roads, streams and field boundaries. Perhaps the best known alleged example is the Glastonbury ‘Temple of the Stars‘, situated around Glastonbury in Somerset, England. The Glastonbury Zodiac was first described by the artist, Katharine Maltwood in the 1920s…
Katherine Maltwood’s revelations had been fed by her remembering reading ‘the 13th century antiquarian William of Malmesbury’s gnomic comment that Glastonbury was a “heavenly sanctuary on Earth.” (6)
The occultist Dr. John Dee, following Druidic/Hermetic traditions, made several visits to the area around 1580 from which he prepared charts and a commentary regarding what he called ‘Merlin’s Secret’ around Glastonbury. Dee had noted the unusual arrangements of prehistoric earthworks in the Glastonbury area, as Richard Deacon, his 20th century biographer notes. (6) He makes clear mention of the way they apparently represented the constellations of the Zodiac in the following sentence:
“The Starres which agree with their reproductions,” Dee wrote, “on the ground do lye onlie on the celestial path of the sonne, moon and planets…thus is astrologie and astronomie carefullie and exactley married and measured in a scientific reconstruction of the heavens which shews that the ancients understode all whic today the lerned know to be facts.”
Glastonbury was mentioned as one of ‘Britain’s Perpetual Choirs’ in the 1796 edition of a translation of FABLIAUX (TALES) which includes a four line Welsh text (known as a Triad – or ‘triade’), and an English translation of it. The theme is the Perpetual Choirs of Britain, and the three sites given in the translation are the ‘Isle of Avalon‘ (Glastonbury), ‘Caer Caradoc’ (Salisbury) and ‘Bangor Iscoed‘ (Disputed). (7) In 1801, Iolo Morganwg recorded that ‘in each of these choirs there were 2,400 saints; that is there were a hundred for every hour of the day and the night in rotation, perpetuating the praise and service of God without rest or intermission.’ The function of the choirs was to maintain the enchantment and peace of Britain. John Michell later adopted this into his concept of a vast landscape ‘Decagon’. (see below)
The theory was next brought to light in 1929 by Katherine Maltwood, a Canadian artist who was researching landscapes around Glastonbury to illustrate a book, when she ‘realised’ the zodiac in a vision.”
Many Glastonbury enthusiasts have regarded the Zodiac as the key to all the myths associated with this place. Some would go further and suggest that the Glastonbury Zodiac is a most important discovery in that it is the story of creation. ~Isle of Avalon
Others would say it’s a story a portal of sacred experiences.
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