Glastonbury, nestled in the Somerset countryside is many things to many people. A walk along the high street shows an abundance of esoteric shops for all your divination and spell craft needs. But why here? When other high streets are the regular pattern of charity and vape shops, Glastonbury has remained the go to destination for the mystical and occult.
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| Credit Mrs J |
Rumoured to be the gateway to a faerie realm, the home of the lord of the Celtic underworld, holiday destination of Jesus of Nazareth, a key ley-line station and the final resting place of the legendary King Arthur, Glastonbury has it all. Hasn’t it? Well now it has me, a paranormal investigator, and Mrs J on her research quest to find the Knights of the Round Table.
Glastonbury not only has a lot of myths and legends, it also has a lot of hills. The most famous of which is the Tor (our first destination of the trip). Parking the car at a nearby leather business (that appeared to specialise in fleece lined slippers) with a whole day flat rate of £5, we set off to find the path that would lead us on a 158 meter climb to the summit.
The first gate – the one that Trip Advisor recommended – had a notice from National Trust directing us further up the steep Wellhouse Lane as access to the path would be restricted due to them building a new gate. Entrance found we were soon traipsing across a field. We located the work crew – resplendent in the hi-vis jackets building a gate at the only access point to the Tor path on this side of the hill (and accessible from the first gate we encountered!!)
The mountain goat that is my wife suitably pushed up the muddy slope and on hard standing we were off – until Mrs J stopped for a drink at the first strategically placed bench. The tour of the Tor’s benches was interspersed by further stopping for obligatory photographs as the view of the Avalon Marshes opened up beneath us giving me an appreciation of how these hills would have been islands, as over the millennia the sea receded into lakes to create the landscape we see today.
Hours later (or so it felt with all the pit stops) we arrived at the summit, home to the 3-story sandstone St Michael’s Tower the only remaining part of the church that once stood here.
The Tor, according to Arthurian legend is said to have been the home of the Corbenic’s – the keepers of the Holy Grail - as well as the site of one of the many other castles that Guinevere was taken to during her many kidnappings (she would have given Princess Peach a run for her money).
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| Credit Mrs J |
Celtic tradition holds this mystical hill as being the place where the natural energies of the earth meet with the supernatural power of death, which could be further explained through the theories of ley-lines – the web of invisible energy creating a cosmic highway connecting key landmarks around the world.
So with all this ancient and magical energy in abundance I found a convenient perch within the tower and fired up the Chattergeist Touch. The Touch works by detecting various energies and changes of energy in its surroundings to produce readings, be they words, 8-ball answers or with the latest update emoticons (apparently these are now called emojis).
I was surrounded by wheezing tourists trying to catch their breath after the climb), mobile phones spewing out electromagnetic frequencies and a lone woman deep in meditation overlooking the Mendips, with her wellington boots neatly stood next to her. The amount of energy, old and new, would surely provide some response on the screen in the palm of my hand.
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| Scanning... |
The screen flashed with the welcoming image and Dimension Devices logo, a tap and was informed the device was calibrating (I generally have my Touch set to a sensitivity of 19). Tap, Menu - open library (on continuous mode) to be met with a display showing ‘Scanning,’ and now I wait. I notice the odd sideways glances from my fellow visitors, far too British to engage in conversation but still wanting to know what I was doing. 5 minutes and the screen dimmed (a nice energy saving function) – still scanning. After 15 minutes of the same message, my backside beginning to get cold from sitting on a stone bench I had received no response. Zip, Nada, Zilch.
A major sceptical criticism of paranormal communication devices such as the Ovilus, Necrophone app or, the previously used, Ghost Hunting Tools app is that they are either programmed to provide results – often with ominous words or phrases such as Killed or Get Out; or that they use the peripherals of the device such as search history or microphone to pick up on key phrases and provide an AI based reply that might fit the question.
But to get absolutely nothing from my device that was so active at Stonehenge in this place shrouded in so much mysterious energy and bombarded with the invisible messages, phone calls and updates of modern-day communication is probably more interesting than receiving thousands of meaningless words. Does this mean that there was actually nothing that wanted to communicate with me? Does it mean that the coding of the Touch is such that it provides only reliable information? Or does it simply mean that there was so much energy the Touch simply could not or would not respond to being so overloaded?
It's definitely food for thought for future investigations.
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| Spot the pigeon |
Reuniting with Mrs J – who had equally not found the Grail or any evidence of the Knights at this altitude – we began our descent. The return journey always seems to be quicker, probably assisted by gravity (and that we were not stopping at every bench on the way back down.) We passed the workers, who were squabbling over the amount of water required for a bag of concrete and left via gate 1.
We crossed over the road to our second destination – the Chalice Well.
Entering the gate to the gardens (phone in airplane mode) I was transported from the hustle and noise of the deceptively busy corner of town to a place of tranquillity, calm and peace. Feeling that this location was not one to be probing with my arsenal of spectral detectors I instead chose to simply feel.
My starting point was the star attraction, the Chalice Well itself and so a short walk through the autumnal gardens I found myself looking down through a grate, its decorative lid open to a pool of water. The water, which I expected to be a ferrous red, was clear – as it is otherwise known as The Blood Well and rumoured to be infused by the blood of Jesus Christ or at least tinged from the iron of his crucifixion nails – which was disconcerting but not surprising as this well has never dried up and has continued to flow at a consistent rate and temperature (13,650 litres a day at 11°C if you are interested) since time immemorial so any additions would have definitely flowed through over the past 2000 years.
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| Thank you Wikipedia as I forgot to take a photo |
The wells lid, decorated with two overlapping circles or vesica piscis - representing a portal between two worlds, was designed by Frederick Bligh-Bond (more on this character in part 2) and presented as a gift in 1919. The bisecting line represents Excalibur with the foliage representing the Glastonbury Thorn. The Christian connection continues with this spiky plant as we introduce Joseph of Arimathea into the Chalice Well’s story.
Joseph was apparently a frequent visitor to Glastonbury, if the stories are true, as it was him sticking his staff in the ground that caused the Thorn to sprout during one of his visits. This miracle was only
the start of his influence in the area as on a second visit he decided to bring a cup with him. This cup being the famous vessel used during the Last Supper – The Holy Grail. Depending on the account you wish to believe either Joe travelled all the way from Jerusalem to do the washing up or it was in this very garden where he grabbed a spade and buried it.
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| Credit Mrs J |
Following the flow of water, I cupped my hands (the well is BYOG – Bring Your Own Grail) under the mouth of the Lion’s Head Fountain to sample some of the healing waters, tasting the iron richness I was not immediately taken by its healing properties. Maybe, like expecting to see ghosts in haunted houses, it is the expectation of miraculous benefit that makes you feel better?
As the water flowed into the seven bowls and the garden opened out into a large green space I realised how much was to offer in this place. I saw other visitors in states of meditation, relaxation and bonding with nature (I think that was what the man embracing the tree was doing anyway.) The water from the lion having an urge to remain saw me heading to the convenient facilities within which they were advertising their Samhain programme of bonfires, ritual and thanksgiving.
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| Credit Mrs J |
Relieved, relaxed and feeling pretty refreshed it was time to leave, but not before a good look in the gift shop (placed as all good attraction should – next to the exit). Amongst the crystals, books and bottles of well water I did discover my holy grail. Since the pendulum experiments with P.I.G.S way back at Tonbridge Castle I had been looking for a metal pendulum (preferably copper). Ones that I had found just weren’t right, but here I found a gold-plated copper one that Goldilocks would have been proud of.
Having expanded my ghost hunting equipment and finding Mrs J (looking at books about Arthur – she had already got them) we set off, phones back on, into the heart of Glastonbury to continue our quest – and get some lunch.
Coming up in part 2 – Glastonbury Abbey, Structured Light Sensors and Cats on Leads.
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