God's Own Country

It's damp, misty and wet in Glastonbury. The fields are looking very soggy and interminable rain shows no sign of clemency. The trees are now adorning themselves in their finest of colours, exquisite against the grey canvas. Even on days like this, there is much beauty and spirit to be enjoyed. Personally, October and November are magical months being the time in the seasonal year when it is easier to feel a little closer to the golden spirit of Avalon, a little closer to connection with the divinity within this landscape. It also serves to link me with the energies of my beloved Yorkshire moors above the Calder Valley, something not often felt during the warmer months.

Lone tree on the Yorkshire Moors. Photo Steven Iceton.

Somerset Mists surround GlastonburyTor. Photo: Stephen Spraggon

​My roots and bloodline are Brigantian and there is a well-known statement, usually spoken by Yorkshire folk and being one not many will venture to disagree with or challenge, “You are in God’s own country now”. This popular idiom refers to the legend that as a boy Jesus visited England with his great-uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, inspiring the musical prelude to William Blake's poem Milton. Considered England’s unofficial national anthem, the piece ‘and did those feet in ancient times’ fondly known as "Jerusalem" asks ‘did Jesus visit England and, in so doing, create the New Jerusalem, heaven on earth? To idealists, “New Jerusalem” is not so much a physical place rather a state of being, expressed through spiritual harmony and understanding in the hearts and the minds of all humanity; thus creating heaven, on earth.

​Rising above the ‘dark satanic mills’ in the valleys, and wandering the wild moors of Yorkshire, often in solitude and grey mist, ‘escaping’ from the real world, it was easy to feel that the next step up from being on top of the world was to step directly to some place not of this earth.  

1930's banner in Pilton church.

​Glastonbury too feels this same anthem is its own and asks the question, ‘Did Jesus come here?’ Certainly, a fair amount of people undoubtedly feel so and the legend is indeed persistent. There is something to be said about the sheer strength of stories, perhaps changed in many forms yet still based on a central ‘truth’  to withstand the death of time and pass down through generations. Combined with the numinous ‘feel of the place’, the enigmatic Tor surely sparks, regardless of our beliefs and backgrounds, a powerful connection to something so much bigger than our little ordinary selves and suggests that here be something very special indeed. During this numinous time of year, that connection, and feeling, is so much stronger and easier to access.

This ‘New Jerusalem’ (to me) represents a place where, despite the differences, all can recognise the one-ness in their common humanness and where kindness, love, care, support, encouragement, peace and unselfishness reign sovereign. Where the physical earth is cared for and nurtured to the best of our abilities. ‘Heaven on Earth’........Spirit and Matter together in Harmony..........Paradise. That vision doesn’t seem anywhere like near a reality right now though does it? In fact, it’s pretty hellish for so many and very easy to despair. The dark of Winter rolls in, even in the sunniest places around our world. Chaos, anxiety, confusion, fear and anger is becoming a normal part of the group mind. Friends are turning on friends, sides are being taken, each withdrawing into isolation from perceived enemies. A wet, grey insular Glastonbury, enclosed in mists, reminds me of that. So, what can I do?

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​On the moors of Yorkshire, I step up…In Glastonbury I step side-ways…and into the mists. Suitably attired, head up and back straight, striding onto the land gives me an opportunity to truly connect with the elements, ancestors and the many legends that abound here. Listening, and sensing,  can bring insights and understandings.

Here is a wonderful route around the town, starting at the Peace Pole outside Glastonbury Information Centre, 

The Glastonbury Peace Pole was planted by members of the Glastonbury Community

​I head towards and up the High Street. I love how the brightly painted buildings remind us that even in the darker, greyer times, there are still many hues and shades in the world around us and how, not misplacing sight of that seems even more important in these social climates of extreme polarisation. Heading to the staggered crossroads at the top of the High Street I continue up Bove Town and when the road bears right, step into Wick Hollow. The trees, in this very Fae corner of Glastonbury, and their complex, visible root systems, serve to remind me of the network of diverse healthy roots that are needed to underpin a strong society.

If you are following this route with me, keep going up until you get to a T- junction. Continue forward, through the gate and onto Paradise Lane.

​ Wick Hollow, Paradise Lane…and soon Gog Magog and Stone Down…how can it be possible to not get transported into the magic through these names alone? Wandering along this old lane, through the trees and the gates, I marvel at an often-unseen view of the lie of the land itself - its contoured shapes, suggestive of water lapping and shaping, and the view over to ‘dragon hill’, knowing it as a place with its own mythology of a time where dragons roamed the land and the locals appeased.

Photo: Garnet Hosein

 At the end of Paradise Lane, fields open before me and I descend the line of trees on the left, through the field towards the next stile in the hedgerow at the bottom. Now on an old medieval road, here I can hear footsteps from a distant past as shadowy shades pass by me.

Passing over the stile, through the next field, I travel on down to another stile in the hedgerow. Once through, and turning left, I come to the two old Oaks of Avalon, known as Gog and Magog on my right.  After taking my time and paying my respects here, I retrace my steps but continue along the lane, through the next gate and turn right into Stone Down Lane. Up, up I go, until I come out at the foot of the Tor. Another climb beckons.

The summit of the Tor can often be shrouded in grey mists during these months; the magnificent views obscured from view. It is at this moment when the Inner Eye, which looks beyond the concept of time, can be employed. Now, I am also on the moors of Yorkshire, knowing that here is the closest point for me to be next to ‘heaven’ in ‘God’s own Country’.  In the grey of the mists, I am blinded to the world around me. It would be entirely forgivable to want to simply be in the moment, blanketed in the almost-conscious mantle of grey, listening to the sounds around me  but if I continue to look outward on my Inner, I see a world filled with colour, diversity, a multitude of magnificent sights and ventures. Hopeful visitors, pilgrims, all journeying towards ‘something’. People doing all they can to create their own little versions of heaven. All over the world. 'May Peace Prevail on Earth' - the message of the Glastonbury Peace Pole, where my journey began. 
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Descending the Tor and stopping to take the benevolent waters running freely outside the White Spring and Chalice Well, I bless this journey of mine and ask that all I do be to serve the higher good. In these chaotic times of fear and anger, we can all endeavour to ‘do our bit’ and if, just for a wee while permit ourselves to travel into those numinous spaces, these places where we can feel a connection to All that is Good. Perhaps in doing so, we can help to anchor ‘Heaven’ to ‘Earth’ and reach that place of true peace that we all aspire to experience. Even if we cannot create it in the wider world and bring it only into our own lives, it is surely still a wonderful gift and a further stride towards creating Something Very Good in a world that is going to hell on a handcart. 

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Photo: Garnet Hosein