The Goddess is Alive and Well: Summer Solstice 2022 in Avalon by Gil Agnew

The Goddess is Alive and Well:

Summer Solstice 2022 in Avalon

by Gil Agnew

Reading The Mists of Avalon in my 20’s was such a revelation and inspiration to me; the story of King Arthur told from the Women’s perspective; what novelty! All of the history and culture I grew up with rarely featured a female narrative that was not in service to the glory and leadership of men. Avalon, however, introduced me to a sacred, sound and resonant cosmology I did not know existed.

When German system constellation practitioners Antonia Stessl and Rotger Heilmeier (www.shifting-worlds.org) opened 2022 offering the Avalonian Healing Cycle via zoom through the Spring, and culminating in person at Glastonbury UK for the solstice, those seeds planted years ago came alive in me.

The goal of the Avalonian Healing Cycle is to guide us on our paths of spiritual transformation, through which we can come more fully into our personal sovereignty. Sovereignty in this tradition is defined as the state of loving, respecting, and knowing one’s self so well that the choices we make about who we are, and how we choose to be in the world, are informed only by our true will, and not by our fears, wounds, perceived limitations, and the expectation of others.

Arriving in Glastonbury, home of the ancient Priestesshood of Avalon, the burial place of King Arthur, the first Christian and thus Catholic church in Britain, which became the richest and most venerated monastic foundation of England by the end of the first millennial AD, the history of The Abbey is immediate, given its central location to the village. However, i was surprised to learn that The Abbey is a ruin and has been since 1539. The Church Abbot lived in enviable splendor in his own lodgings, entertaining the rich and powerful from his great hall. However, the 1530s were a period of profound religious and political upheaval in England as King Henry VIII and his Chief Minister Thomas Cromwell sought to bring down the old Catholic structures, who held more power than them, and replace them with the new pillars of Protestantism, passing The Act of Supremacy. In doing so, they unleashed a wave of violence and destruction of epic proportions, according to Oxford Bodley Librarian Richard Ovenden. Glastonbury held out as long as possible, but eventually Abbot Richard Whiting was arrested on fabricated charges, and hung and quartered on the Tor, marking the end of the monastery.

Immediately following the Dissolution, the Abbey was stripped of its valuables and the land was awarded to the Duke of Somerset, as the still ruling Aristocracy was further entrenched. Glastonbury has been a crucible of the evolution of Western spirituality for 2000 years, when the Romans arrived. Back then, King Arthur, son of the High Priestess of Avalon and a Roman Christian, was the great hope for unifying the two religions and Kingdom. Sadly, his light was extinguished before that could happen, as the patriarchal religions we still live with today were forcibly enthroned by Henry and Thomas.

Stepping into The Chalice Well Gardens, just a quarter mile from the Abbey ruins, the beauty and abundance of the grotto and groves, presided by majestic, towering cypress and oak trees, immediately calls one to reverence; silently, ethereally, viscerally.

Enveloped by the tender tentacles of compassion, visible in the interweaving species of flowers and ferns; held by the power and animus of the dancing tree branches; and shown by the sacred geometry of the vessicus pisces of The Chalice Well; you gnow you sit in the liminal awareness of Heaven and Earth. You are not alone in the presence of God, but in the wholeness of God and Goddess. The Goddess is alive and well and present.

As a civilization, we find ourselves once again in the evolutionary throes of political and spiritual upheaval, as we lurch forward towards Wholeness and Unity, graduating from the Age of Knowledge, and humbly stepping into the vast Age of Wisdom. Avalon invites and guides us into wholeness through the subterranean depths of the White Spring, the portal of the Chalice Well, the peak of the Tor, and the softness of the Chalice Hill. They are the essence and example of the unity that radical diversity and inclusivity can create; where masculine and feminine are balanced, prolific and peaceful. A new cosmology is emerging, which i call ‘scientific spirituality’, as Western science converges with Universoul spiritual experience and understanding, after a 400 year separation. Dr. Jude Currivan is leading the way to articulate this in her books The Cosmic Hologram and The Story of Gaia. This reunification of mind and heart, understanding, experience and embodiment, requires the inclusion and honoring of both God and Goddess.

In our constellation work at Glastonbury, we asked Gaia what she needs now; she gives us everything at every moment; from our first breath to our last, our every drop of water and blood, every meal a communion with Her. How often do we give something back to our Mother?

Our Ancestors understood and practiced intentional, conscious tributes to Gaia. From science, we now know that our intention is enough to reach and honor Her.

As we learn to release the Rage of the Ages masking the collective pain of separation, I am guided to create my own sacred garden, a new Noode on our Noosphere, as we expand our awareness and embrace The Age of The Sage. You can, too! www.gift4gaia.com

Gil Agnew is an Artivist, Futurist, Design Scientist, Founder New Innergy Empowering Conscious Evolution, Co-Founder A WholeWorld-View