Unto This Last by John Ruskin - a book that deeply influenced Gandhi - illuminates the idea that the true basis of global society is not wealth, but the "invisible gold" of human companionship. As we wander lost in the mists of Avalon, we must never forget that there is a universe beyond Glastonbury that is - at every step - equally as precious and sacred to the heart. There is a planetary nexus of shared love and truth that glows brighter and more vital every day. It is our duty and responsibility as lord and lady knights of the Grail to share this "invisible gold" with all beings. And each of us must prepare ourselves - as best as we know how - to receive, in due time, the harvest of the seeds we have sown...
For an "eternal core of silent magick" is pouring forth from the heart-star of Glastonbury to awaken all consciousness throughout every dimension to the full joy and experience of Godhood. And one great day, this starship woman of our highest Ideal shall return. Will we be ready? Will we recognize the child that leaped from our heart so long ago? As Einstein says, that light which springs forth shall in time return to its source. Metaphysicians qualify this by saying: that love which springs forth shall in time return magnified a thousandfold. Cabalists express this as the journey from Kether to Malkuth - and the Return from Malkuth to Kether...
Yes, the light has left Glastonbury... to beam through an ocean universe of dry thorns... prodding fossil tongues... within a horn of cold songs your red sun dreams... meet you on Aldebaran... its so very lonely when you're 2000 light-years from home... Yes, our love has fathomed the secret of every galaxy and is coming home again to sing "There's no place like home..." This homecoming shall be a flashpoint that will mutate the entire planet. Teilhard de Chardin terms this historical event a global "Omega Point". As John Cowper Powys says in his Autobiography: "He will come, my friends. He will come. I found that out... Christ will come, King Arthur with come."
Within the silent womb of darkness just before the Dawn, I hear the joyous cry of your fast approaching comet:
Come walk with me Upon a shore of jewels And drink waters of laughing moons Glorified by the Scarab Of the Chalice And we shall witness The final sacrifice Of the unborn God... Heap these chains of mind Upon our pyre And stand aside For I am the Lightning Torch Of total purity of Heart And do anoint thee With the Seal of the Phoenix! Be thou the Eye of Shiva And stagger my universe with Love As we initiate this Dance Of Perfect Peace upon the earth! Transfix thy heart Upon this horn And ride our Unicorn Throughout the winds of change Now herald The rising of the hurricane!
I bequeath to you Silver Threads of Perfect Tao To guide thee Through the Forest of my Passion... I redeem for you The Royal Road of Perfect Will So that you may travel As you please Within the Lion Eagle's breast! And may the twin serpents Smiling in your eyes Be mighty in their Call For the Everlasting Thrill Within my soul Doth yearn to dwell with thee Forevermore!
Geoffrey Ashe, Glastonbury's Arthurian scholar, has done an excellent job deciphering the subliminal Crowley-Glastonbury harmonics. Read his novel about a Crowleyian Order based in the Glastonbury area - The Finger and the Moon. However - if you can accept the possibility of reincarnation - these harmonics make very fundamental contacts with the most basic archetypes of Glastonbury...
During the summer of 1918, Crowley began a solitary spiritual retreat on an island in the Hudson River in New York in an effort to recall his previous incarnations. Prominent among these recollected past lives was that of Sir Edward Kelly - magickal colleague of Dr. John Dee, the astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. Kelly had an intense interest in St. Dunstan and spent a considerable amount of time in the Glastonbury area. He wrote several essays based on the alchemical work of the Baltonsborough saint. On one of his expeditions to the Abbey ruins, Kelly rediscovered the red and white cruets that Dunstan had buried 600 years earlier. Legend tells us that these two cruets were originally brought to the area by Joseph of Arimathea. They are displayed upon the coat of arms of Glastonbury's penultimate Abbot, Richard Bere... While in the Glastonbury area, Dee and Kelly stayed at the home of their friend, the poet Sir Edward Dyer.
Every archetype of consciousness has both an outer, dead definition and an inner, living experience. The outer, vampirized meaning of the two cruets is that the red contains the blood of Jesus and the white his sweat. Now I'm quite sure that Jesus prefers to keep his blood flowing in his veins... And the moist lather - which is not white - excreted from his glands forms a barrier of gravitational entropy; an inertial drag that in no way contributes to the fecundity needed for the creative unfolding of Perfection... unless one happens to have a sweat fetish...
Any alchemist who is worth his or her salt, sulphur and mercury has established contact with the inner, vital energies of these cruets - known as the Red Lion and the White Eagle. Kelly-Crowley, Dunstan and Joseph are the only three Glastonbury adepts who are reputed to have worked with these alchemical cruets. Crowley considered the zodiacal forces of Leo and Scorpio to be the two most powerful energies for the magickian to harness. These two signs are in a dynamic square to each other. Mastery of this tension unleashes a tremendous potential for regeneration and global resurrection.
Let us examine some of the cabalistic and A..A.. attributions of these two forces within Merlin's Atlantean Star Temple, the Glastonbury Zodiac: The Red Lion is Leo, the Sun, the Adeptus Minor, Lancelot... The White Eagle is Scorpio, Saturn, the Master of the Holy Grail, the Thunderbird-Eagle-Raven Messenger of Arthur reborn... The Tree of Life pathway between Saturn-Binah and Tiphareth-Sun is governed by the Chariot and Death tarot cards. The fusion of these two spheres may be clearly stated: The Charioteer is the bearer of the Holy Grail which overcomes death and creates physical immortality. For practitioners of Celestial Alchemy, the transit of Saturn through Scorpio from August of 1983 to November of 1985 provided an opportune time for the birthing of Higher Truth. And the Sun in Leo created an exact square to Saturn in Scorpio during August of '84 and August of '85...
All archetypal images are being continually raised to higher frequencies of Truth. The eagle has replaced the scorpion... The overall mythic drama of the Glastonbury Zodiac has shifted from the old, outworn, Piscean Age concept of the dying sun god betrayed by Scorpion-Mordred to that of the new Aquarian Age vision of Arthur Triumphant and the Eagle, the Bearer of his Word proclaiming Life Eternal. The restoration of Merlin's Round Table shall be complete when the triangle of Lancelot (Leo), Guinevere (Virgo), and Arthur (Sagittarius) is redeemed by the harmonizing influence of the Dove (Libra), and the Word of Arthur Reborn - the Eagle of Scorpio - is released to the world. Within the A..A.., the adept of the Libran Dove is known as the Adeptus Exemptus - the Knight of Excalibur...
A detailed commentary upon the magickal interplay between the White Eagle and the Red Lion may be found in Crowley's great work on the Tarot - The Book of Thoth. Study the sections on "the Lovers" and the "Art" cards. The 9th degree O.T.O. aspects of these two cards are traditionally revealed to the 6th degree Adeptus Major of the A..A.. - the Knight of the Holy Grail. In passing, I have heard it said that Lady Frieda Harris, the artist who worked with Crowley for five years to create this tarot deck, received some of her inspirations while visiting Glastonbury...
Within the major arcana of tarot, the "Lovers" card is ruled by Gemini and thus corresponds to the tantric couple portrayed in the Glastonbury Zodiac by the Dundon-Lollover Hill area. In particular, the Orphic Egg shown on the bottom of this card represents Dundon Hill. The image of Arthur Triumphant formed by tantric alchemy within this egg is clearly visible within certain aerial photographs of Dundon. The image is formed in Gemini; the image is manifested in Sagittarius (Arthur).
The Street literary coterie which included Roger Clark had a remarkable intuition concerning Compton Dundon - they called the village "Humpty Dumpty". Listen to Crowley talking about the Orphic Egg shown on the Gemini-Lovers card:
It is only through the Return of Arthur - "The King" - that the Ideal Vision experienced on Dundon Hill may be fully materialized upon the earth... Another peculiar synchronicity: Crispin Hall in Street was opened by the Clarks on Crowley's tenth birthday... this last bit unadulterated trivia!
Please allow me to digress for a moment before we turn our attention to the "Art" - Sagittarius card. In Book Four: Part II, Crowley gives an amusing interpretation of another nursery rime associated with Glastonbury... Jack Horner was steward to Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury. The "plum" he retained at the dissolution of the Abbey - Mells Manor in North Somerset - suggests that he was implicated in Whiting's betrayal. Here is Crowley's version:
In the interpretation of this remarkable poem there is a difference between two great schools of Adepts. One holds that Jack is merely a corruption of John, Ion, he who goes - Hermes, the Messenger. The other prefers to take Jack simply and reverently as Iacchus, the spiritual form of Bacchus. But it does not matter very much whether we insist upon the swiftness or the rapture of the Holy Spirit of God; and that it is He of whom it is here spoken is evident, for the name Horner could be applied to none other by even the most casual reader of the Holy Gospels and the works of Congreve. And the context makes this even clearer, for he sits in a corner, that is in the place of Christ, the Corner Stone, eating, that is, enjoying, that which the birth of Christ assures to us. He is the Comforter who replaces the absent Saviour. If there was still any doubt of his identity it would be cleared up by the fact that it is the thumb, which is attributed to the element of Spirit, and not one of the four fingers of the four lesser elements, which he sticks into the pie of the new dispensation. He plucks forth one who is ripe, no doubt to send him forth as a teacher into the world, and rejoices that he is so well carrying out the will of the Father.
Crowley's "Art" card - "Temperance" in other decks - illustrates the alchemical blending that is the fulfillment of the work begun at Dundon Hill (The Lovers Card). The White Eagle has become the Red Eagle; and the Red Lion has been transformed into the White Lion. Appropriately, the Glastonbury Zodiac Gemini and Sagittarius figures are the sole effigies portraying separate shapes in the process of fusing and blending - their boundaries dissolving. (The Triple Goddess Virgo figure contains three distinctive figures which do not lose their respective outlines.)
If you stand on Lollover Hill and look at Dundon Hill you can see the face-to-face fusing of the tantric idealists. The forestial colouring of the southern female's hair is clearly distinguishable from the northern male's vegetative coiffure. And in keeping with the dualistic nature of Gemini, a magickal spring emerges from two openings on the east side of the hill and flows into one to baptise the fused "Radiant Brows" of the Lovers. And something quite extraordinary has occurred in recent years in the shifting outline of the Arthur-Sagittarius figure: The head of the horse protruding from Arthur's stomach area has been effaced from the landscape!
This fusion of horse and Arthur emphasizes the wise centaur Chiron aspect of the Pennard-Baltonsborough area. This change in landscape is mirrored in the heavens by the recent discovery of the small planet named Chiron orbiting between Saturn and Uranus. Within the A?A? initiatory concept of the Glastonbury Zodiac, this is shown by the placement of Chiron-Arthur between the Saturn temple of the Scorpionic Eagle-Raven and the Uranus temple of Pisces-Choronzon. And the mythic interplay of these three Glastonbury giants is entirely consistent with the merging astrological interpretation of the planetoid Chiron...
There is wisdom gained from the sagacious centaur which bursts open the first apocalyptic seal of global resurrection: "So I looked, and saw there a white horse, whose rider carried a bow; a crown was given him, and he rode out victorious, and to win victory". - Revelation VI:2... This refers to the Return of King Arthur as portrayed in the Glastonbury Zodiac. May Arthur return to Britain! May Albion be resurrected in everlasting Joy! Or as Anthony Roberts says in his foreword to Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem: "The revolutionary revival of Albion's true spirit will be the precursor of a New Age and that apocalyptic revival will spring from the eternally universal fountainhead that is Glastonbury. The Day draws nearer."
Listen to the alchemical voice of John Cowper Powys - in the guise of the immortal Aether - blessing Homer (and every being):
Oh yes, my Homer, and never, never let yourself forget, as I hope to make some great prophet cry out before his fellow mortals murder him, that the rhymes of the nursery are the poems nearest to heaven.
That persecuted "great prophet" - as illustrated above - was Crowley... Prophecies abound concerning Glastonbury. A few from Aleister and others: Crowley predicted, in The Book of the Law, that the 1980's would see the true flowering of the Immortal Child-Horus spirit of the Aquarian Age. Now 800 is a Scorpionic resurrecting number... Spring of 1984 was the 800th anniversary of the destruction, by fire, of Joseph of Arimathea's wattle church in 1184. The Phoenix secret of the Holy Grail symbolised by this church was reborn in 1984 through the fire of Truth. According to Crowley's peculiar dating system - counting from 1904 - the "80's" is the time period from April 1984 to April 1994. Easter 1984 at Glastonbury was the first high spiritual focus of this ten year period.
In the ancient Aztec calendar, August of 1987 was predicted as the dawning of the New Millennium. See Lord of the Dawn, and subsequent works, by Tony Shearer for information on this and the 13 sphere Tree of Life - Cabala phenomena of the Yucatan-Oaxaca area in Southern Mexico.
The previously mentioned Saturn-Uranus conjunctions of 1988 opened the way for the Saturn-Neptune conjunctions of 1989 in the sign of Capricorn. These powerful alignments activated the Shaston-Glaston (Shaftesbury-Glastonbury) polarity involving the Holy Grail and the lance, or Wand. Within the A..A.., the Word of the Grail is experienced within the Saturn-Binah temple of the Eagle. Mastery of the lance - called the "Bezant" in Shaston - is obtained within the Neptune-Chokmah temple of Arthur. The Chalice of Ecstasy by Frater Achad, contains many useful insights concerning these cabalistic Grail aspects. Achad was initiated into the A..A.. by Crowley and Hilarion - the Scarlet Woman mentioned in the Broceliaunde passage quoted above...
There is a progressive etherealization of the "Excalibur" motif as you travel around the Glastonbury Zodiac. For Gawain, in Aries, it is seen as both sword and lance. In Gemini, Galahad and Dindrain - the tantric Grail lovers - concentrate on the sexual symbolism involved. The "Spear of Destiny" motif emerges at Leo-Lancelot... And by the time Excalibur reaches Merlin at Kether, it is no longer sword, but Wand. As Crowley says: "Let thy Wand grow invisible!" Ultimately, within the Tiqqun Temple of the Aquarian Phoenix, Excalibur as wielded by Parsival is always invisible. This Wand represents the creative power of the True Will. Its image changes as you ascend the Netzach-Chesed-Chokmah "energy" pillar of the Tree of Life.
In the same way, the image of the Grail mutates as you ascend the "structure" pillar. The true archetypal home of the Grail is at Binah-Saturn. The corresponding home of the Wand is at Chokmah-Neptune. Hence, the importance of the Saturn-Neptune conjunctions in 1989... The ultimate fusion of the Grail and Wand is through Pluto-Kether - the Crown of the Tree. However, this is not the end: One then re-emerges from Kether and enters the bipolar 12th and 13th sphere of Tiqqun as a physically Immortal being. Within the Glastonbury Temple of the Stars, this sphere of Tiqqun (value of 666 in Hebrew Gematria) is the Aquarian Phoenix.
And finally, the culminating phenomena of Crowley's "80's" decade were the Neptune-Uranus conjunctions of 1993 in Capricorn. These alignments completed a magickal work initiated during the previous Neptune-Uranus conjunctions - also in Capricorn - of the 1820's. At that time, a physically immortal human named Moroni materialised to an ancestor of mine named Joseph Smith. Information concerning the science of immortality was communicated. Previously - during the time of Elizabeth I - this information, inscribed on golden tablets, had been under the guardianship of the Iroquois adept known as Deganawida. This Indian and his disciple, Hiawatha, were the "Dee and Kelly" of the Western Hemisphere. Hiawatha, better known in 20th century England under his alchemical name of "White Eagle", is a major force within the contemporary spiritual community.
On a global scale, the White Eagle represents America and the Red Lion is Great Britain. The alchemical reversal of these two energies resurrects the Immortalist knowledge of "Atlantis". Enoch or Merlin, was the first Atlantean to achieve physical immortality. All antediluvian references in the Tanach, or Old Testament, are Atlantean... This alchemical reversal - as illustrated on Crowley's "Art" card - suggests why Haiwatha-White Eagle has been working in England for the last several decades.
As William Blake understood, it was necessary for England and America to separate in the 1770's in order for this magickal polarity to form. This impulse to separate was sparked by the interaction of two families originating from the centre of the Glastonbury Zodiac. George Grenville - brother of James, the Squire of Butleigh - was the unfortunate minister who brought in the Stamp Act that John and Samuel Adams - whose ancestors came from Barton St. David - rebelled against. A plaque for the Adams family can be seen within the wafer of the Libran Dove - inside the village church. And the grandson of Grenville - George Neville Grenville - attempted to remedy his ancestor's apparent faux pas by adding two very important features to the Glastonbury Zodiac.
Both of these additions are essential for the restoration of Excalibur to King Arthur's hand. The first of these is the Avenue of the Cedars. This represents the sheath of Excalibur. Remarkably, this beautiful avenue portrays a famous Crowleyian number - 93. Study Crowley's Ace of Swords (Excalibur) card... The blade has the Greek word for True Will - Thelema - inscribed upon it. The gematria value of "Thelema" is 93. Crowleyians are often known as Thelemites and the magickal current being generated by Crowleyian Work is frequently termed the "93 current". There are positions for 93 cedars in the avenue. This count varies from time to time by plus or minus one - the maximum variation allowed within classical gematria. For example: 92 and 94 are spiritually equal to 93 - 91 and 95 are not.
The cabala gives further emphasis to the "avenue-sword" relationship. Within the A..A.., entrance into the sphere of Chesed-Jupiter is known as the "Inititiation of Excalibur". Cedar is the incense attributed to Chesed! The Initiation of Excalibur is the gaining of the ability to always think, speak and act in the most perfect Way in order to catalyze any situation into a higher level of Creative Truth - to master this form of magick sword...of magick wand...
Neville Grenville's second addition existed during the days of Katherine Maltwood. It would be nice to see this feature restored in the future... Engraved at the base of the "life line" on Arthur's outstretched hand - on tiles above a spring - were a rose and a cross and the initials N.G. A Rosicrucian interpretation: When the hilt of Excalibur is restored to the palm of Arthur, Choronzon shall be destroyed, the wafer of the Dove shall be released, and Eternal Life shall flourish throughout the world! The term "Choronzon" and the Rosicrucian Movement both originated with Glastonbury's own Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly...