Are you ready with the goddesses?
Hi everyone!
Tel and I managed to survive our Hallowe’en in Avebury, apparently one of the most haunted places in the UK. Avebury is the only village in the world to be *inside* stone circles and it has massive mystical significance for pagans (which we did not know before we arived!) This is a picture of us in front of the Red Lion pub in the village:
Legend has it (!!!) that in the 1700’s, a man drowned his wife, Flori, in the well of this hotel (at the time it was his yard). Funnily, we found out when we got there that her body popped up a few days later in the well *of the house where we were staying*!!! I am sure you can imagine our first thoughts about that! Apparently, Flori now haunts the village and although we didn’t see her, we were watching for her!! The bar area of the Red Lion still contains the well, although it is now long sealed over.
When we decided to start chasing world heritage sites, we opted to skip Stonehenge (too touristy) and head for Avebury, a teeny village inside the stone circles. It is the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world, and is much, much, much less effected by tourism than Stonehenge. The stone circle was made between 2500 and 2000 BC!!!!
Little is known about its significance at the time it was built; in fact, it is widely thought to have had an astronomical significance, but that is still being explored. What experts also believe is that it was also used in funeral rituals. It would have taken approximately 1.5 million person hours to build it…..and I find it astonishing that we still don’t know why it was built!!!
Unlike Stonehenge, Avebury is completely and totally accessible. You can walk right up to the stones, touch them, lean against them, watch the sheep and goats grazing amongst them.
We wanted to be in such a cool, possibly haunted place for Hallowe’en. What we did *not* know was that Avebury has immense significance for pagans. We were surprised when we pulled into the village and saw a lot of people wandering around in capes! Hallowe’en has its origins in a pre-christian celtic celebration called Samhain. November 1st was the beginning of a new year, the beginning of winter, a time when crops had to be harvested and animals had to be secured for the winter. The Celts believed that at Samhain, more than at any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living. As with all other pagan traditions, when the christians arrived on the scene and attempted to convert the celtic people to christianity, they countered resistance by starting to “meld” pagan traditions with christian ones (fuckers!). And so…..now we have Hallowe’en!
OK, off the soapbox and back to the people in capes wandering through Avebury! It’s a teeny village so we were able to find out quite quickly that there was a really big pagan ritual happening that night. Our curiosity was beyond piqued!! At the appropriate time, we wandered over to a field amongst the stone circles and joined the large group of pagans, there to have a labyrinth for Samhain. The leader explained that on this night, the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnnest, and Samhain was also the time to practice the labyrinth ritual, to shed your negativity from the previous year. A series of circles, marked by candles, had been created in the grass, three goddesses (the maiden, the mother and the crone) were in the centre. The labyrinth was protected by a series of “gatekeepers” who wandered around talking to people inside the labyrinth, ensuring that their intentions were pure; if they did not believe your intentions were pure, you were sent back to an earlier point in the labyrinth and asked to do some more thinking/meditating. The labyrinth itself was surrounded by fire twirlers. If you chose to enter the labyrinth, you were given a bunch of leaves to focus your attention on as you were going through the labyrinth; at the end, you were to speak to one of the goddesses (your choice which one) about what baggage you were trying to get rid of, and then burn your leaf in their cauldron. Apparently, this would help you get rid of the negative shit you’d accrued over the year! It was all very other worldly!
While Tel and I were at the side of the labyrinth, taking pictures, we were approached by one of the gatekeepers who said to us: “You’re taking pictures of my labyrinth, but do you have the courage to enter it”. He was a bit of a jerk, told Tel specifically that he was not sure that her intentions were good, and that he would be challenging her again. She decided against walking the labyrinth, but I decided to do it (I happen to think that being curious is a fine, and that makes me perfectly well intentioned!)
So, I did it, and I had no spiritual experience whatsoever. It was interesting, it was new, but it did not impact me in any other way than satisfying my curiousity! Actually, much like so many other religious rituals I’ve seen, I though it was a hoaky, self-indulgent circus. It was incredibly contrived, with the “leader” operating more as a director of scenes than anything else. Truly, when they were preparing to start the procession to the centre of the labyrinth, we heard him shout: “OK, are we ready with the goddesses?” before directing them into the labyrinth! I’m not kidding!
I suppose I am a bit cynical about these things, and those of you that know me well know that I tend to see the world in a different way than many others. It seems to me that religious rituals are created by and for extroverts….who need to show how good they are at those rituals!!! Even my favourite religion, Buddhism, which I love and which is of immense spiritual assistance to me…..I cannot practice the rituals because I think they are too contrived. That is exactly what I thought about the labyrinth: interesting, but clearly for show.
What was really great though is that we did not expect this at all! We went to Avebury because we thought it would be fun to be in a spooky place on Hallowe’en! After the labyrinth, we went to the Red Lion pub for some beers. All of the pagans came back to the pub as well, although they left again at 10:30 to do a midnight procession to the sanctuary within Avebury. We opted out of this part, as for one of the few times on this trip, we had an incredibly comfortable bed and we wanted to sleep!
Avebury was a great experience! Palpable energy, amazing rock formations, interesting ceremony. It was perfect, really. Now we are in the town of Bath, England. The *entire* town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, our sixth on this trip. We will write about it tomorrow. This is our second last stop on our vacation; we will be heading to London soon to spend a few days there before heading home on Friday.
I’ll leave you with a few more pictures of Avebury, as it was a truly beautiful place to visit. Oh, and Tel asked me to make sure that I mention that she was not scared at all, at any time, even a little, while we were in Avebury!
Bye for now, and thanks for reading!
Mel
Tel, you should’ve told the gatekeeper who questioned your intentions that as long as you were paying tourist dollars to be there, your intentions were beyond good…
Jerk.
Him, not you. Well…maybe you, too…
🙂
Stonehenge is only recently become inaccessible – maybe in the last 4 or 5 years. We used to stop there for a picnic because it was on our way home …. but after the first 5 minutes of wondering how the hell they got those rocks upright like that, it was just a bunch of huge rocks in a circle.
You could easily spend ten minutes or less there.
Since you’re right there – did you go down to Castle Coombe ?
It’s a great village and sight to see.
Where are the goddesses already? the director yells. You and Tel step up, “Umm, right here, kind sir.” heehee. Love it. And I would have been SO into that procession!
And I now I must add this to the list of places to see. arg, you’re killing my pocketbook already! hahaha!
Love you both – can’t wait for the slide show when you return!!
All your posts are great, but I really loved this one. Pagan lovers. Haha. Anneke
Did Telly fill her bedtime glass of water from the bathroom faucet? Did it taste like 300 year old lady?
Just curious.
Did you check under the bed? Must have been all kinds of positive energy around thankfully. Imagine, being able to go up to surroundings with such history and not be hindered!
Canada is waiting with open arms to welcome you back to its fold. Love………….