Storm on eve of Beltane.

Glastonbury Tor 12

Image by Greyscale

Forrester May 11, 2005 12:20:50

Was anyone else up the Tor in that Storm a week last Saturday night? It was extraordinary weather, and created quite a spectacle. It's made me think a whole lot more about all the mythology and lore associated with "Annwm" the (mythical) underworld portal below the Tor, and beliefs about the Tor being some kind of gateway into other dimensions. I've seen a heavy electrical strm there before, about 15 years ago, by day, and watched the approaching weather coming in qiuckly over the Somerset levels --- so i appreciate that this is just a natural phenomenon; but there really did seem to be a kind of intra psychic confluence of thought, electricity, wind and water --- which to any kid, would just be called "Magic".... if anyone has any ideas about the powers, real or mythical, of the site, just reply below. I'm especially interested in the Zodiac idea.

nosocks May 11, 2005 15:19:24

Replying to Forrester

Sounds like it was quite a storm you witnessed on "the Tor". What made it extraordinary though? Could you describe the spectacle a bit, maybe. Sounds like you are really trying to say something here.

Your description talks of a confluence including electricity, wind and water. Fair enough, but none of those are extraordinary in a storm surely? (I don't know about the thought or psychic bit - could you explain more?).

Probably most people these days are really just not used to being out in a storm and it certainly tends to make an impression on them if they are ever caught in one.

Sorry don't know anything about the portal ideas or different dimensions. Could you tell us what you have heard?

Rhiannon May 11, 2005 15:38:59

Replying to Forrester

Forrester,
I like the idea that the Tor is instantly recognisable, even to many people who've never been there. It's no doubt utilised on hundreds of alternative-type products from incense to organic soup and many other things. It's an icon isn't it representing (depending on your view) a nice hippy pagan place to escape to / ancient celtic/english arthurian things / an annoyingly load of crystal-wielding charlatans.

I like the way you can see it from miles away and it orientates you, you know where you are and there it is at the centre of this landscape that has all this mythical stuff tied to it. I suppose that's the appeal of the Glastonbury Zodiac - (though I must admit I don't give this any credence, I think I am more interested in the paths of rivers and the shape of hills and the intervisibility of things, rather than tracing field boundaries to get a distorted unicorn or something. But I can see the motivation behind it. If you get a copy of Mitchell's 'New View over Atlantis' I think there's stuff on it in there. But no doubt on the web too. But maybe you've read that stuff already)

I think it's not unfair to say that certain places have more of a special feeling than others, and this is something that 'presumably our ancestors felt too. These are often places that are boundaries. Boundary places are certainly my favourites, I suppose they're naturally so because they're more interesting?! eg tops of mountains, by the seashore, at springs, cliffs, confluences of rivers etc.
- and glastonbury tor is one of these places. It's an obvious distinctive landmark, but in addition to this it would once have been pretty much surrounded by water, and think how much more amazing it would have looked then.

So if you believe in Otherworlds, whatever that might mean, I would have thought the best place to think about them (some might say, #where the veil is thinnest!' ) would be boundary places - liminal places - like Glastonbury tor. And I like the idea that other people have visited those places before me and been thinking and experiencing things too.