While there may never be definitive proof that Glastonbury was once indeed the Island of Avalon, it has held the energies of Avalon for centuries, and has done so for spiritual seekers of the Holy Isle into the modern day. Fabricated or authentic, there is an energetic connection to Avalon that overlays the town of Glastonbury like an ancient mist, accumulated over time and through the workings of the collective unconscious; it is through this overlay that real and transformational connection to Avalon may be made.
The Path of Legend
“… To the island–valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep–meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.”
—Alfred Lord Tennyson,
Idylls of the King (427–432)
Just as the search for the physical location of Avalon is anchored in the lore of the mighty Dark Age King, the majority of what we know about the Holy Island of Avalon comes to us through Arthurian legend. Indeed, some of the earliest stories of Arthur show him voyaging to the Celtic Otherworld in search of the Sacred Cauldron, paving the way for his later connections both with the Holy Grail and with Avalon. Just as when he sought the cauldrons in Culhwch and Olwen and in The Spoils of Annwn, Arthurian mythos depicts him traveling by boat to receive the sword of kingship from the hand of the Lady of the Lake, an archetypal echo of the Goddess of Sovereignty. Later, we see the mortally wounded king being borne over the Western Sea to Avalon by three queens to receive healing so that he could return once more to champion the Island of the Mighty. Clearly, then, the journey to the Otherworld is strongly associated with a voyage over water towards an island to the west. This paradisiacal island is also the providence of women, a motif seen both in Welsh and Irish mythology. Examples of sacred islands of women abound in Celtic lore, oftentimes found inhabited by a ninefold sisterhood, ostensibly Pagan priestesses in service to the Goddess.
As we have seen in Welsh legend, the Otherworld Cauldron of Inspiration and Plenty is warmed by the breath of nine maidens. These priestesses appear to play an oracular role as well, as the poem indicates that the cauldron speaks poetry in the form of divinely inspired verses. Inspiration is related to the act of breathing, the taking in of spirit, and it is this breath that warms the cauldron and ignites the “Fire in the Head” that comes with acquiring Awen. As Ceridwen is considered the bardic muse, and the bubbling forth of Awen from Her Cauldron is the source of all poetry, an argument can be made that the cauldrons in The Spoils of Annwn and the myth of Ceridwen is one and the same.
The Île de Sein, or the Island of Sena, off the coast of Brittany in northwestern France is also known as the Isle of Druidesses. There, nine priestesses known as the Gallicenae served as oracles and healers. Renowned for their ability to shape-shift, they were said to hold power over the wind and waves. According to Breton legend, no man was ever allowed on Sena; the priestesses themselves took a boat to the mainland whenever their services were needed. Said to live in perpetual virginity (meant in the old sense of being tied to no man), they nevertheless took lovers on the mainland, always returning to dwell alone on their island. Classical accounts paint these priestesses as Bacchantes, recounting how during the annual re-thatching of their temple, the first woman to drop her bundle would be set upon by the others and torn to pieces in sacrifice.
Breton legend also speaks of the Korrigan and her nine sisters, a group of women with magical powers associated with springs and water. These women, sometimes collectively called the Korrigan, are said to be shape-shifters, talented singers, and potent healers with the ability to travel wherever they willed using the power of thought. Captivatingly beautiful by night, the Korrigan are revealed to have white hair and red eyes by day—colors giving a powerful indication of their Otherworldly origin and connection to the mysteries of the Goddess. Although reduced to the status of fairy folk in Breton lore, this sisterhood could well reflect the memory of an order of priestesses that dwelt in the local forest; they have been linked to stories of the Gallicenae.
The Korrigan is sometimes seen as an individual personage, possessing a wand used to turn the forest into a wondrous castle. There, by night, she and her impossibly beautiful sisters work seductive spells on hapless men, lulled into a state of forgetfulness. When daylight comes, the woods return to their natural state; the women are transformed into hideous hags and the men become their victims. This theme may be a later demonization of the ancient rites of Sovereignty, whereby the Goddess chose the man most fit to be king, while the old king died in sacrifice. The enchanted castle and the forgetfulness of mortal visitors are common motifs in Celtic legends dealing with the Otherworld. Scholars see a strong relationship between the Korrigan and Ceridwen, as both possess similar powers and embody the primal power of the Great Goddess—the polarity of life and death.
Another goddess of inspiration and healing is Brigit of Ireland. Her shrine at Cill Dara—the Church of the Oak, that most venerated of Celtic trees—was centered on an eternal flame kept alight by nineteen priestesses. This tradition survived into Christian times, safeguarded by nuns dedicated to Saint Brigid. Objecting to its Pagan origin, the flame was extinguished by the Archbishop of Dublin in 1220 ce. The sacred fire was revived after his death, only to pass into darkness once more during the Reformation. Joyfully, in 1993 the Brigidine Sisters kindled the perpetual flame anew at the site of the original shrine in Kildare, Ireland. It remains today as a place of pilgrimage and devotion to those dedicated to Brigit in all of Her guises.
Perhaps in resonance with the healing powers attributed both to the Island of Avalon and the goddess-made-saint, Brigit became associated with Glastonbury during the later Christian period in the guise of the much-loved Saint Brigid. The tower of Saint Michael on Glastonbury Tor bears a carving of Her image, and tradition holds that She left relics behind in Glastonbury during Her pilgrimage there in 488 ce. Near Wearyall Hill in an area known as Beckery—which means “Little Ireland”—is a small hill called Bride’s Mound, presently being reclaimed for the Goddess in modern-day Glastonbury. Bride is another name for Brigit.
The Shrine of Brigit at Cill Dara is but one example of a community of holy women from Irish tradition. There is a genre of early Irish writing known as Immrama—the Wonder Voyage. In one such tale, the Voyage of Bran Mac Febal, a mysterious woman appears before a gathering, encouraging Bran to begin his journey across the sea into the Otherworld. She holds in her hand a branch from the orchards of Emhain Abhlach—the Plain of Apples. After embarking on their journey and finding one fantastic island after another, Bran and his crew encounter the Land of Women. Here, each of his men finds companionship with one of the beautiful female inhabitants of the land. Their plates are never emptied of food and they are given anything they desire. Time passed differently in this land; one year in the Land of Women was equal to several years in the rest of the world. This kind of temporal dissonance is a common feature of the Otherworld in Celtic traditions.
Another Immram, the Voyage of Maldun, speaks of the Island of Women, describing it as possessing a mound and a fortress filled with people, where maidens tended to a fountain or bath, and whose mother greeted the travelers on the back of a swift horse. The men of Maldun’s ship were welcomed to the island, and told that all who dwelt therein would never die. In both stories, it is exceedingly difficult for the sailors to leave the company of these Otherworldly women, and their departure is marked by great sorrow.
Maldun and his crew also encountered an Island of Apples, and although they sailed around the island for three days and nights, could find no way to land upon its shores. Maldun broke a twig off of one of the overhanging apple trees which later produced three apples, each providing enough food for the crew to last for forty days. As wit
h Avalon, which was said to produce abundant food of its own accord, these holy places of apples and women mirror the functions of the Sacred Cauldron—providing healing, abundance, and inspiration.
The Ninefold Sisterhood of Avalon
There nine sisters rule by a pleasing set of laws those
who come to them from our country. She who is first of them is more skilled in the healing art, and excels her sisters in the beauty of her person. Morgen is her name, and she has learned what useful properties all the herbs contain, so that she can cure sick bodies. She also knows an art by which to change her shape, and to cleave the air on new wings like Daedalus; when she wishes she is at Brest, Chartres, or Pavia, and when she will she slips down
from the air onto your shores.
—Vita Merlini, Geoffrey of Monmouth
Legend tells of another group of priestesses dwelling upon a sacred island renowned for its healing arts—a place of tranquility for departed souls. Its keepers were the Ninefold Sisterhood of Avalon. These women were learned in language, science, mathematics, music, and healing. The Island of Avalon, or Ynys Afallon, appears to have been a religious center for women’s study in the mode of the Druidic Colleges established all over the British Isles. The Island of Anglesey, or Ynys Mon, is a prominent example of these communities, perhaps serving as inspiration for, or evolving into, later monastic Christian settlements like on the Island of Iona.
Like the Korrigan, the Priestesses of Sena, and Ceridwen Herself, the Women of Avalon were shape-shifters. Able to transform themselves into ravens (a bird associated with the Otherworld and the totemic animal of the goddess Branwen), the Ladies of Avalon were able to transport themselves anywhere they wished. This shape-changing ability suggests facility with shamanic techniques, and may refer to the initiatory rites that were a part of the Avalonian Mysteries—resulting in the transformation of the self. This may also serve as evidence that the name Morgan did not refer to an individual, but rather was used as a title by the high priestesses of Avalon, known as the Nine Morgens. Different women bearing the same name could contribute to the notion of shape-changing and would explain how “Morgan” could be in more than one place at a time or travel over great distances in the span of a heartbeat.
According to Malory, Morgan is one of the veiled women in black, riding the barge that comes to take Arthur to Avalon. The dark cloaks of these sisters, like those reported in descriptions of the siege of Anglesey—where women dressed in black clothing aided the Druids of Ynys Mon against Roman invasion—could also account for their association with ravens.
In his Le Morte D’Arthur, Malory tells us Morgan le Fay was sent to study at a nunnery, where she became a “great clerk of necromancy.” While the early Christian settlement in Glastonbury is said to have had a monastic building for women on Wearyall Hill near a shrine to Mary Magdalene, this nunnery could also refer to the memory of Glastonbury as a pre-Christian women’s religious center. It is not a far stretch to consider that the nunnery grew out of the priestess center since the historic record indicates this often happened in the British Isles as part of the transition from Paganism to Christianity. Geoffrey of Monmouth gives the names of Morgan and her sisters in the Vita Merlini: Moronoe, Moroe, Gliorn, Glitonea, Gliten, Tythonoe, Tythen, and Tithen. The names of these women are of obscure origin though scholar Stuart McHardy has traced them linguistically to water deities and water nymphs from Celtic and Classical sources. The name Morgan itself comes from the Welsh, meaning “shore of the sea.”
Again, we return to the realm of water—associated with the Otherworld in Celtic myth and the medium through which we can obtain access to the domain of the unconscious. The Island of Avalon is the soul’s destination—the Wonder Journey into the heart of the self. It holds the key to unlocking the treasure of women’s wisdom, thus providing the map to seeing our life’s patterns, granting us the power to change our course if we so choose. The more conscious we become of our inner landscape, the greater will be our ability to steer the ship of our soul to a place of empowered Sovereignty.
The Path of Spirit
A branch of the apple–tree from Emain
I bring, like those one knows;
Twigs of white silver are on it,
Crystal brows with blossoms.
There is a distant isle,
Around which sea–horses glisten:
A fair course against the white–swelling surge,
Four feet uphold it.
—The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal
Considered to be the parent culture of modern European and Indian languages and society, the mysterious Indo-Europeans were a nomadic people living in the area between the Black and Caspian Seas in eastern Europe around 3000 bce. Beginning approximately in 2500 bce these people spread out, migrating in many different directions. They moved east to northern India, Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia; south to Armenia; and west to Greece, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. Wherever they settled, the Indo-Europeans appeared to overcome existing populations and imposed their language and customs upon them. The peoples we today recognize as the Celts evolved from the Indo-European “mother culture,” therefore sharing an ancestral bond with peoples and civilizations seemingly as far removed from the Celtic homelands as Greece and Persia.
Recognizing this ancestry is important when considering the commonalties of the various cultures we consider part of Western civilization. Of specific note, it paints a picture of interconnectedness that belies the view that ancient peoples were isolated in time and space from each other. This is often erroneously assumed through the non–holistic study of history that examines each culture and people separately and out of context. In truth, there was much more communication than we may give the ancients credit for. For example, Cornwall was part of a thriving tin trade route with the Middle East, while Greek amphorae were highly prized and seen in royal burial mounds of continental Celts. We see, therefore, that not only was there a common Western origin, but the peoples of the West and the ancient Near East also enjoyed continued connection through trade and exchange—of goods as well as ideas.
From a Jungian perspective, we can infer that these peoples drew, at the onset, from a common and well-established collective unconscious. This would explain how the many cultures share so many similar manifestations of belief system and philosophy, giving them a Western “feel.” In contrast, the peoples of the East seem to draw from a different set of patterns and symbols, thus shaping a distinctly Asian family of belief and philosophy.
As the Indo-Europeans migrated and settled, they developed cultural differences dictated by their adaptation to different environments, assimilation of indigenous populations, and different cultural needs. These needs helped create pieces of the collective unconscious, and became distinctively part of the culture that birthed it, forming what can be described as a specific archetypal realm. These archetypal realms exist within the greater collective, and yet carry a specific cultural signature. This signature is what energetically allows us to differentiate between what is Greek or Norse or Celtic in form and energy. Every archetypal realm possesses a specific set of rules, symbolic language, set of tools, belief system, and philosophical perspective. These reflect the spiritual, material, and emotional needs of the culture that spun the archetype. For this reason, it is important to become familiar with the culture from which spiritual inspiration is drawn, otherwise a complete understanding of the archetypal realm can never be obtained—indeed, its deeper levels will remain closed.
The Avalonian archetype is a thread in the Celtic archetypal realm, which in turn is a patch in the quilt of the Western collective unconscious. Because of this energetic family tree, it is appropriate to say the Avalonian Tradition is part of the Western Mystery Tradition, and therefore shares commonalties with other Western esoteric paths. These commonalties are what allow us to use Western esoteric tools
and techniques in our quest for Avalon. As there are no complete and authentically ancient Celtic religious traditions in existence today, we can use general Western techniques to unlock lost wisdoms—the Mystic Way extolled by Dion Fortune.
From an archetypal perspective, whether Avalon as reflected in myth, legend, and literature actually existed in a distant Celtic past is irrelevant. Over the past two millennia, and especially in the last 150 years, enough psychic energy has been invested in the symbol of Avalon as the Blessed Isle of Women—the resting place of Arthur, the nunnery of magick, the Druidic College and Priestess Temple dedicated to the Goddess—that the essence of Avalon firmly resides as an archetypal realm on the astral as part of the Otherworld. As such, the Holy Isle is accessible through the collective unconscious.
While there are advantages to working directly on the site of what was once ancient Avalon, there are alternative ways of connecting to the Sacred Landscape. It is powerful to visit the physical location of ancient Avalon as it exists today in the small Somerset town of Glastonbury, for the energetic resonance there is very strong and can facilitate our connection to the Avalonian archetypal realm. Yet, such a journey may not be possible for everyone, or if made, permits only a temporary connection unless one permanently moves to Glastonbury. Happily, there are other options at our disposal, for, as part of their legacy, the Celts have provided us with a powerful tool with which to access the realm of the Otherworld—the Immram. While the word itself is of Irish origin and refers to a classification of Irish tales, there are similar stories in Welsh mythos depicting journeys to the Otherworld over water. As research has yet to unconver a specific Welsh word to describe these types of tales, the Avalonian Tradition has adopted the use of the term to describe this powerful meditative tool.
Avalon Within Page 5