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 The water from the
Chalice Well
in Glastonbury
is a well-known source of healing.
According to Christian legend,
St Joseph of Arimathea placed the Cup that had held the
Blood of Christ into the well to collect water.
There are many special places to visit in
this garden. The wellhead is at the top of the garden. The first spot
you reach when you enter at the bottom of the garden is the vesica
pisces shaped pool water water flowing into it through a series of flow
forms.
 The
vesica pisces is a sacred geometrical symbol in which the circumference
of one circle passes through the centre of another identical circle. The
bit in the middle is the vesica. Geometrically, this is the basis for
establishing the sacred proportions of the Golden Mean. Extend one end
of the vesica and you get a fish – the symbol in Roman times that you
were a Christian.
The top half of the vesica made the Gothic arch used in medieval
church-building. Many ancient stone circles in Britain were laid out
using a the same mathematical principle.
Just up the hill from the Vesica Pool, on the right next to a door in
the wall, is an old yew tree that has grown apart at the base and then
grown together again about six feet higher up. This vulvic shape is
sacred to the Goddess, and many visitors see these waters as her blood
spring.
 The
next area of the garden is called King Arthur's Courtyard. It has long
been a place of healing. The bathing pool is nowadays shallow, but in
the nineteenth century it was deeper, allowing for total immersion. The
courtyard is now a fine place of quiet contemplation, with the sound of
falling water creating a soothing background. If you want to sense
fairies, this is the place – but you must
quieten yourself and go within to do so.
The Chalice Well nestles at the base of Glastonbury Tor. You can see the
tower of the Glastonbury Tor
through the trees from the Well. Higher up from King Arthur's Court is
the Lion's Head, where you are welcome to drink of these waters. It is
always a place of special prayers and personal ceremony. When you drink
this water it soaks right through you, washing out parts of you that
other waters do not.
The tree above the Lion's Head is a scion of the Holy Thorn tree (Crateagus
Monogyna Praecox) that Joseph of
Arimathea brought from the Holy Land. The Holy Thorn is what
remains of his staff, nearly 2000 years later! This species normally
lives in Lebanon.
The Holy Thorn flowers around the time of the former Christmas festival
in early January. It sprouts berries and flowers at the same time. It is
as if both birth and death, flower and fruit, can happen at the same
moment. Birth lies within death – transformation. There are several Holy
Thorns around Glastonbury, the best-known being on
Wearyall Hill and in the
Glastonbury Abbey.
Just a short stroll above the Lion's Head is the goal of our pilgrimage,
the Chalice Well itself.
 The
vesica pisces on the lid of Chalice Well was designed by the excavator
of Glastonbury Abbey, Frederick Bligh Bond, resident archaeologist of
Glastonbury Abbey around 1910. It was given to the Chalice Well as a
thanks-offering for peace in 1919, at the end of World War One, by
friends of the Well and of Glastonbury. It symbolises the interlocking
of the male and female, the light and dark – a favourite Glastonbury
theme. The Chalice Well Trust carries on this philosophy today, and the
gardens are open to individuals of all spiritual paths.
The waters of the Chalice Well have never
been known to fail. It was the only source that kept on working
consistently through the drought of 1921-22 and recent droughts in the
early 1990s. Under Bligh Bond's lid, 25,000 gallons of water gush
upwards to the surface every day, filling several man-made, room-sized
subterranean chambers.
For millennia, both Christians, pagans and followers of many other
spiritual paths from many lands have come to this holy place to seek
healing, new vision and renewal. Come visit the garden yourself, taste
the water and take time to be in the silence and enjoy the beauty.
The red waters, rich in
iron oxide, are still drunk today by many as a source of healing and
peace. The gardens that now enclose the Well are well worth visiting for
contemplation and prayer. However much of their Christian heritage has
been submerged in goddess worship and esoterica.
Useful
Links
With this link from the
bbc you can explore Glastonbury, including The Tor,
Glastonbury Abbey, Chalice Well, St John's Church, The
Tribunal, Market Place, and the Somerset Rural Life
Museum.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/nature/walks/index.shtml |
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The
Chalice Well
