Astrology

Glastonbury Zodiac

Copyright © 2005 Jonathan Dee

Glastonbury, once a sleepy English West Country town is now the premier mystical site in England. This fact will come as no surprise to readers of this page, but even so, its modern magical reputation only goes back to the 1920’s - mediaeval Arthurian traditions and Joseph of Arimathea notwithstanding.

Ok, so King Arthur is supposed to be buried in the Abbey ruins (much to the chagrin of the Welsh, who insist that the once and future monarch is having a long lie-in under some Welsh hill or another). The Holy Grail has been submerged in the Chalice Well since the dissolution of the Monasteries (Though the Nant Eos Cup has a good case going for it). And Little Jack Horner definitely pulled out a plum in the time of Henry VIII, which turned out to be the deeds for the town. Even with all the above, the true magic of the area had been mostly ignored since the days of the last Astrologer Royal, Dr John Dee, who made a pilgrimage to the place in the 1580’s.

And, so, on to the Twentieth Century. The lady that the good, if rather confused residents of Glastonbury have to thank for their sudden elevation to an occult centre to rival far-off Tibet, with all the concomitant New Age invasions that followed, was a talented sculptor called Katherine Maltwood.

Mrs. Maltwood, a lady who has been described as full of sensitivity and erudition, made a remarkable discovery in 1929. One that she claimed had been deliberately suppressed since the late Elizabethan period, and that was the true explanation for the highly charged psychic aura that surrounds Glastonbury and its environs. Her view was that Glastonbury provided a focus for an enormous set of earth-works covering a ten-mile radius, which she described as the Glastonbury Zodiac, and the true Round Table of King Arthur and his knights. Others, more sceptical, have claimed that the lady suffered from an over-developed imagination. Be that as it may, her researches, logical methods of deduction and stunning intuitive insights do bear closer examination.

Her thought processes began with a reading of the earliest known accounts of the Arthurian Grail Quest. Combining this with her intuitive hunch that the dark-age fortress known as Cadbury Castle was in fact the original Camelot (a theory since given a lot of credence by respectable archaeologists), she had the framework for setting the entire saga of the search for the Holy Grail within the Somerset landscape.

Using large-scale maps and aerial photographs, Mrs. Maltwood was able to pick out huge figures formed by hills, trackways, rivers and apparently natural features. The clincher came when she placed a stellar chart over her calculations. By this time, she was gratified rather than amazed to find that the major stars found in the signs of the zodiac fall within the boundaries of her colossal figures.

Aries the Ram lies with his legs folded over the town of Street, while ancient roadways draw the head of Taurus. A high ridge forms its horns.

The sign of the Crab does not appear, but is replaced by another constellation that occurs in the same quadrant of the sky, the Argo, which is made up by dikes and breakwaters. Gemini is slightly misplaced here too, seemingly riding within the boat.

Leo the Lion is one of the most impressive figures in the entire zodiac. It is the most clearly defined design of the whole lot. The River Cary flows along his back, leg and foot, while his head and jaws are made up of terraces on the side of Worley Hill.

Virgo appears to lie on her back. The profile is outlined by the River Cary while the other side of her figure is drawn by lanes, land boundaries and streams. Interestingly, since Virgo is the symbol of the ancient fertility goddess who encourages the growth of crops, at Virgo’s feet lies Wheat Hill.

The usual Balance symbol of Libra does not appear, instead a dove, an equally ancient image associated with Venus, ruler of the sign, is found at Barton St. David. Oddly enough, one of the symbols of St. David himself is indeed a dove.

The sign of Scorpio does appear to be a bit wobbly, one claw reaching to West Lydford, the other bending back to Hornblotton.

Sagittarius, though, is a magnificent concept covering a vast area of countryside. It is said to represent King Arthur himself, since various observers detect not the usual centaur symbol, but an armed horseman in battle with a sea monster or dragon.

The most obvious feature of the sign of Capricorn is the horn from which the sign takes its name. It is formed by a straight earthwork called Ponter’s Ball. This ridge of land once provided a jetty for trading ships from the east.

Glastonbury itself lies within an area that has been identified with the astrological figure of Aquarius, yet the common symbol of a man pouring water is nowhere to be seen. In this vast zodiac, the symbol used is that of the phoenix, the immortal bird, which perishes in flames only to be born again, renewed.

Glastonbury Tor is found within the head of this bird, while Chalice Hill makes up much of its body.

The tradition that Joseph of Arimathea planted his staff in nearby Wearyall Hill may have a bearing on this resurrection story. The Staff, of course became the Holy Thorn, which flourishes on Old Christmas day in a more Christian remembrance of yearly re-birth. The original thorn was destroyed in the time of Cromwell, but a cutting survives and flourishes in the Abbey grounds.

The Christian symbolism of the thorn is further emphasized by the notion that Wearyall Hill makes up part of the sign of Pisces the fish, which is one of the earliest images of Christianity.

So, was Mrs. Maltwood right? Do the environs of Avalon conceal more secrets than the Holy Grail and the tomb of Arthur? On the plus side, some of the images of the Glastonbury zodiac are too perfect to be mere coincidence, on the other, many of them do require a leap of faith. Personally, I want to believe in Mrs. Maltwood’s Circle of Stars, and you, dear reader, may draw your own conclusions.