Today I want to share the experiences of my past week, touring around the sacred sites of the West country with a very excited group of Spanish Pagans.
Viaje a Avalon
I saw on Facebook only about a week before they were due to come to England that there were two places left on their 'trip to England.' Having visited Glastonbury and Avebury last Beltane and having not wanted to leave, I was grateful to snap up the opportunity to go again, while practising Spanish on my own turf. I made a slightly hair-raising coach journey to Bristol airport (due to horrendous traffic in central London giving me about 5 minutes to change at Victoria Station). The group of 7 turned up in Arrivals bundled up in winter coats - "Welcome to the English Summer!" I proclaimed in Spanish, much to their amusement. A minibus took us to our first destination, the EarthSpirit centre in Somerset, about half an hour from Glastonbury. As the Spaniards spilled out of the minibus they looked around in awe at the foggy moon and the light it cast on the farmhouse and the garden. Their faces looked as though they'd landed on Mars (so I'm told, 'The West Country has that effect').
On our first day we went to Glastonbury, to visit the abbey (we held a beautiful mini ritual under a chestnut tree in the grounds), followed by a visit to the fabulous Goddess Temple and a shopping trip along the High Street. One of the women wanted to buy a drum and wanted to know how it was made but didn't understand a word of what the shopkeeper said to her. Indeed these people spoke about 3 words of English between them, cue my first attempt at being a makeshift translator. Despite my somewhat shaky translation, she seemed pleased with it and ended up buying the drum. We then made our way up a hill, at the top of which was a small tree surrounded by a metal support; on every inch of space there hung ribbons of all shapes, sizes and colours, with blessings and prayers scribbled on them in many languages. From there we had a fantastic view of the whole town, and of the Tor, and chose this place for our next group meditation.
The next day we found an enormous and beautiful Yew tree in a cemetary under which to meditate, then collected some yarrow, the 'women's plant', for them to take home. We took the minibus back to Glastonbury, where we were unleashed into Morrisons and told we were to buy lunch and dinner for the next 2 days. Cue a mad frenzy of grabbing anything that was on offer, and we landed up with bags and bags of....well, crap. It sufficed though, and we spent the afternoon climbing the Tor, which has wonderful views over 3 counties, and visiting Chalice Well, whose beauty grabbed my interest and never let go during my first visit last May. On the way to Avebury we stopped by at Stonehenge, which I got some very good pictures of when the herds of Japanese tourists had cleared a sufficient gap between me and the stones. We arrived at the Aveburylife B&B in the evening and chowed down on our Feast of Abundance. The B&B owner then showed us pictures of the orbs of light that surround people in photos next to the stones, and of the nearby crop circles which made them jump up and down with excitement. The following morning we visited 2 crop circles, and had a ritual and a sing-song in one of them which was a truly magical experience. We then followed a trail through the woods towards Silbury Hill and did a meditation inside the West Kennet Long Barrow, an underground set of chambers. We then made our way around Silbury Hill and towards the main stone circles. We had private meditations with each of the stones and then a group meditation; we shared what we had learned from the stones and what had sprung to mind during our walk around the site. This exercise always fills me with dread because unlike going around a circle in a language oral lesson, in which you can fill 2 minutes with any old crap and it'll do, here I feel the need to come up with something personal, meaningful, revelant to the question and for goodness sake not in Spanglish. But I managed it, even if my verb endings were all over the shop and I was able to make myself understood. In the evening we chowed down in the famous Red Lion pub, and on the way back in the dusk, we took pictures of each other around the stones, and they squealed and leapt with excitement as dozens of white orbs appeared in the photos around their bodies. "Tell them to look at the sky," the B&B owner said to me. "There are no street lights here so there is no light pollution." This was followed by more 'ooh's and 'ah's. Bless 'em.
On the last day we made a circle and selected a 'moon card' as we had done in Spain - round cards with an image of different deities or circumstances printed on them. I was surprised to select Kali but I was told this is relevant for me because I'm learning to stand on my own feet; as Morgaine noted, I travel alone, I'm preparing for University far from home and I jump in at the deep end learning another language. Very well said. We said our fond farewells to Avebury and travelled to Stanton Drew, a small out-of-the-way village where there's a stone circle in a farmer's field that hasn't yet been pounced upon by English Heritage. Cows meandered between the ancient stones, indifferent to anyone who walked past, and the sheer peacefulness and lack of swarms of tourists made it something I'd recommend for anybody. Ritual inside this circle was moving and refreshing, and the weather pretty much held out the whole trip (despite one of the women asking me if this was normal temperature for the summer, and then informing me with slight disdain that this is October weather in Madrid.)
There was a somewhat emotional farewell on return to Bristol airport, to those who had been a really great group. My translation skills, if somewhat shoddy, were very much needed and it was great to be so useful while learning more of their language at the same time. We realised that this was the start of a long and fascinating journey of international networking which made me very glad I took the leap and went to the witchcamp in Spain in the first place. I'll be watching the Friends' Events on Facebook very closely from now on! Every journey begins with the first step....
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