The Spirits of Avebury

Druid Sacred Rite

In the early hours of the morning of the first night, I spent in the West Kennet Long Barrow, I was moved to take a lighted candle across the road and climb to the top of Silbury Hill to await the sunrise. My vigil was rewarded by a horned crescent moon thrusting up from the clouds along the eastern horizon. It was blood red.

The Welcoming Arms of a Great Mother Goddess

My overwhelming impression of Avebury during that first visit was of the henge being the open, welcoming arms of a great mother goddess. The whole nature of Avebury, its wide entrances, the wide spacing between the stones of the circles, its visibility within the landscape, its sheer scale, all suggest openness, that it was built to attract, make welcome and hold safe within its immense earthwork boundaries many hundreds, probably thousands, of people.

In 1993, I was asked to compose a ceremony for a multi-faith gathering in Avebury hosted by Tim Sebastian of the Secular Order of Druids. I discovered that the remains of a short woman had been unearthed near the bottom of the great ditch surrounding the henge, just by the southern entrance. A fire had been built there, lit and allowed to die down. Her body had been laid on the ashes, surrounded by blocks of sarsen, curled in a foetal position and facing down the West Kennet Avenue. I believe she was a priestess of the place who sat in what the guidebooks call, ‘The Devil’s Chair,’the notched sarsen flanking the southern entrance, to greet pilgrims arriving for ceremonies. I wrote her into our ceremony, her part being taken by my late wife, Ellie, then pregnant with our second child.

This ceremony resulted in the formation of theGorsedd of Bards of Caer Abiri, which still meets to celebrate the turning of the seasons amongst the stones. (1) I also gave the Gorsedd a motto; “In the spirit of freedom, and for freedom of the spirit.”

A Place for All People

Prior to that, Avebury was not widely known in the Pagan community, ceremonies there being attended by only 10 or 20 people.

The Gorsedd soon attracted hundreds, becoming within two years what Pagan historian,

Magickal Transformations

Central to the initiation is the awen chant. Awen is a Welsh word, usually translated as ‘inspiration.’ In the British Druid tradition, it is the spirit of inspiration and creativity that flows through all creation, brewed in the cauldron of the goddess

Ceridwen, patroness of bards. It has impacted many who experienced it during Gorsedd ceremonies.

Lives were changed, a bike became a harper, a heavy metal drummer became a folk musician...