Wurzel Gummidge

Just enjoying a coffee and relaxing before my shuttle collects me at 2.00pm.

Auckland International Airport is still saying that passengers on flights through Heathrow must not carry gels, lotions or liquids of any kind. I keep joking to friends that with no cleanser, hand cream or water bottles to comfort me during the journey, I will look like Wurzel Gummidge at the end of it.

Just as well my first stay is in the West Country so my Wurzel accent won't be out of place.

Last pats for Stan the orange moggy, final sniffs of fresh New Zealand air and the luxury of swinging that proverbial cat (not Stan) around this sparsely populated Aotearoa of ours, and I'm off!

Next post: when Wurzel's eyes are open again and not bloodshot.

Themes

Well, I said I would introduce some other aspects of the legends that took me half-way around the world all those years ago so here we go...


King Arthur

I watched John Boorman's 1981 film 'Excalibur' last weekend. I hadn't seen it for about fifteen years when I lived in Wellington and they showed it on the big screen. I was too young to see it when it first came out in 1981 so that was a real treat. For anyone wishing to see a condensed (but lushly-filmed) version of some modern Arthurian literature, then this is a good place to start. It's based on Sir Thomas Malory's 15th century epic Le Morte d'Arthur (yes it is one of the modern ones!).

The film introduces these themes:

1. The dawn of Christianity and the end of the old Pagan system.

2. Arthur's court including Camelot, the Round Table and the Guinevere/Lancelot betrayal.

3. The quest for The Holy Grail.

It's worth watching just to see Nicol Williamson's energetic and eccentric portayal of Merlin! I'm holding back watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail again before I fly out...

Boorman's 'Christian' Arthur is actually very 'Pagan' and is forever linked to the land. If he starts wasting away, so does the land he rules over; as he prospers so does the land and its people. The symbolism here is of the potent young Sun God in his prime, fertile and strong at the start of his reign (Spring and Summer) who then begins to wane and die at the end (Autumn Winter).



The Grail Tradition

This is important not only for the Arthurian cycles but for anyone who is seeking something. When I embarked on my quest in 1994, in many ways it was as testing as any knight's quest (it just had better shopping). At dawn on 10 September 1995, after spending an entire night on Glastonbury Tor (and before sprinting down its slopes to the nearest public convenience) I realised that the Grail was me and I was the Grail. This kind of revelation is not new. Countless people have travelled vast distances and fought many 'dragons' only to realise the truth has been with them all along and it just took a challenge or quest to find it.

The Grail quest represents much. There is a long tradition of grail-like objects or concepts in many mythologies. For some it is a cup or bowl, for others a jewel and for others still, it is the embodiment of all that is pure and sacred to their own beliefs. A well-known legend tells of Joseph of Arimathea who collects Christ's blood and sweat as his body is being prepared for interment. After a long period of imprisonment during which he is kept alive by the Grail, Joseph is rescued and with a small band of followers, heads to Albion (England) and founds the first Christian church at Glastonbury. Sometimes this legend includes an earlier time where Joseph, as uncle to Jesus, takes him to England as a teenager during Christ's undocumented years. William Blake's Jerusalem honours this: 'And did those feet in ancient times walk upon England's mountains green...'.



Glastonbury Abbey, the Chalice Well and Crafty Monks

One of my favourite twists is the link to Glastonbury Abbey and the Chalice Well (also known as the Blood Spring) near Glastonbury Tor. The Grail was supposed to have been hidden in the Well (which daily pumps hundreds of litres of red iron-stained water). When I drank the water at the Well on one visit, let us say that my body was purified and I again sprinted to that public convenience...

In the twelfth century, the crafty monks at Glastonbury, their fortunes suffering the effects of a recent fire, decided to announce to the world that they had found the tombs of Arthur and Guinevere. Yes! Two skeletons were found and re-buried by the then king, but it was all a little too convenient really. Briefly, Arthur and the other characters are literary creations, based more-or-less on semi-mythical warlords, bards and others. Who knows who those skeletons belonged to.

I'll stop here before I launch into the Arthurian literature. If you are still awake, let me just say that it's good to share this with you as it awakens these things in me again, as I count down the final day until I head to 'The Lands Adventurous'!

Welcome

Introduction

This Blog records my trip back to Britain in September/October 2006. This is the first post and I thought I should start by explaining the Blog's name and the reason why I am on this journey. This will help you to understand the signifigance of the places I visit and the fact I am revisiting some.


Background

Some of you know the reason I went to live in Britain in the mid 1990s. For those who don't, I had spent several years studying certain aspects of the Arthurian (King Arthur) mysteries and decided I should actually go to the source of those legends.

My studies revealed that there was far more to King Arthur than just a bunch of knights, a table and a sword. They revealed (amongst other things) links to ancient Christianity in Britain, the Druids, the Holy Grail myth and sacred geomantic and architectural systems that linked legends with mathematics.

To stay sane, I had to scale back my studies to four key areas:

1. Sacred proportional architecture (the use of sacred and cosmic measurements in certain man-made structures). Glastonbury Abbey was a key focal point in my studies.

2. Terrestrial alignments and effigies including the Somerset earth zodiac and ley lines (invisible lines linking sacred sites across a landscape).

3. The Holy Grail mystery and its links to Glastonbury, ancient Celtic lore/advent of Christianity and King Arthur.

4. The evolution of the King Arthur legends through the wonderful literature produced over the centuries, whose authors borrowed heavily from from Celtic, Welsh, Breton and other folklore to shape the stories we know. Part of this research was understanding how Arthurian figures like Guinevere and Lancelot are represented in other folklore and where the authors sought inspiration for the characters they were responsible for introducing.

My time in the UK from 1994 to 1996 was spent as a working holiday in London and Bristol. I also spent much of my spare time roaming around Somerset in the South West, visiting the various places that interested me.

Now, just over ten years after leaving Britain, I am off again to revisit some familiar realms but also to experience the place as 'a grown-up' with more resources (and I hope wisdom) at my disposal.


Caer Sidi

Since 1996, my personal email handle has been 'caersidi'.

In October 1996, when choosing my email address over the phone to the newly-created Xtra, I had been back in Wellington only a few months. I was still grieving for Somerset and missing my friends in Bristol and London. I wanted to connect myself with those places as much as possible so like all girls from Wainuiomata, I chose an old Welsh term that has sometimes been translated as 'revolving castle'.

The inspiration came from an article in the book I got from Mum and Dad for my 21st in 1992 - Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon New Jerusalem. The book chose me, of that I'm sure. I was looking for King Arthur books and this rather obscure tome made sure it left the shop with me that day. Little did I know the effect it was to have on my life from that moment!

The book is a collection of articles from a dozen writers and compiled by a man who was passionate about all things Arthur, Grail... etc. This book made me realise how much there was to learn about the legends surrounding King Arthur. One of the articles was by a man called John Michael, entitled Caer Sidi: The Zodiac Temples of South Britain.

Somerset has had a way of gifting me over the years, long after I left. One extraordinary gift came to me in 1998 when living in Sydney, I wrote a review of the book for Amazon.com. John read it and emailed me and we have corresponded ever since. I meet him for the first time mid-October in Southport where he now lives and I can't believe my luck in knowing him.

Now, back to Caer Sidi (roughly pronounced 'kai-er seedy'). Revolving castle is only one translation but I quote from John's article to provide more information:

'In these ancient times there was no difference between the science and the religion of the people. Everything they believed in was part of their everyday lives, and became manifest in the course of each year. Great importance was attached to the stars that were in the background of the sun's apparent path. Within a band almost ten degrees either side of the actual ecliptic, they were grouped together into constellations, each having its own symbol, known collectively as the signs of the zodiac. The very first principles of religion consisted of a scientific record of the sun's annual path through the signs of the zodiac. The very first temples perceived in the imagination of the astronomer-priests were temples in the heavens, observed from the sacred high places, the celestial city/castle/temple known as Caer Sidi. In the star lists in The Barddas, Rev. Williams says that Caer Sidi represents the ecliptic, or band, of the zodiac; yet many have translated it as the 'revolving castle'.'

Michael, J. Caer Sidi: The Zodiac Temples of South Britain. In A. Roberts (Ed.), Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon New Jerusalem (1978) Rider and Company.

There now! You have just tasted some of the wonderful learnings I have been fortunate enough in my life so far to acquire.

I'll post again closer to the time of departure and introduce you to some more aspects of the mysteries...