Lammas 2014 - Glastonbury Goddess Temple

Goddess Temple News
LAMMAS 2014
The Goddess Temple,
2-4 High Street,
Glastonbury, BA6 9DU
www.goddesstemple.co.uk
L
ammas calls us together in that
turning point between spring and
fall, when harvesting is underway,
when leaves and blossoms begin
to fade, and a faint chill frames sunset’s
glow. In Ontario, spring was late, sudden
and quick after a hard winter. Summer is
reluctant, now gifting strong rays when sun
flares reach deep into our atmosphere, then
drenching the ground with thundery rain,
washing away seeds planted in hopes of
colour and nourishment.
Rabbit lurks in the early morning, wishing she could jump high enough to munch
on our lettuce, planted in boxes with no
toehold. Chipmunk families dart in and out
of their holes near morning glories – blue
petals sacrificed to hallucinogenic fiestas
at midnight while coyotes howl on the
trail earlier trod by day-time bird-watchers.
Deer shelter their fawns, nervously alert
to traffic so close to their wooded sanctuary. A rare cougar explores the garden,
Donations Welcome
raccoons tumble the dustbins. We share
our suburban-type home with creatures
whose ancestors were here long before us,
who walk old trails following gene-maps.
We are the intruders here. Bats, monarch
butterflies, and honey bees have lost their
way this year. We mourn their absence in
the cycle of life.
Pomona, Goddess of fruit-trees, gardens and orchards, once danced on this
land ; She still dances in Avalon, the land
of apples. Once upon a magical time, Her
island orchards nourished much of Canada.
Every lakeside village shipped apples and
pears across our vast land from busy docks,
through the Great Lakes system. Their task
sacrificed to progress, canneries are now
transformed into inns and gift shops, docks
fallen, rotted, into the lake’s depths. Few
apple trees remain.
But Pomona still looks both ways. She
remembers the past and also looks ahead to
the future. Her fruit may wither this Lammas,
but its seeds create next year’s harvest. Like
the crone. Once upon a magical time, her
flesh was taut and luminous, her hair shiny
and lush, her steps springing across the land.
Apples are still sweet within a wrinkled
skin ; the crone’s aging body still shelters a
youthful spirit, a memory of the orchard. As
the apple holds the seeds of the future, so
the seeds of future generations are nurtured
in the pregnant mother. Wisdom ripens
within the crone.
In the media, the crone is imaged
as youthful, energetic, playing with her
grandchildren after taking a magic pill. I
wonder about the reality of the elderly
who live alone in one room, waiting for a
daily meal to be delivered, watching the
energy outside the window – there is none
on their side of the glass. The inner crone
still dreams and travels the world, remembers the gene-maps of the ancestors. Like
memories of past orchards lingering over
rows of plastic houses, a wealth of life and
love, experience and knowledge, hopes and
dreams, are sheltered within. As in us all.
Lammas is the harvest time in between
fertility and reaping, gathering and hibernation, hope and loss, birth and death, when
the spirit inside – like the apple seed – burgeons in life-giving darkness. This year, the
19th annual Goddess Conference celebrates
the Crone Goddess, She who stores wisdom
within Her to weave into the world before
She follows the ancestor’s map to Avalon.
May our inner crones dance with the
love of life lived, sing the words of the wise,
and celebrate the joy of each other.
Blessed be, Roz Bound – Conference Elder
The Goddess Temple is now becoming
licensed as a venue for formal Legal
Marriages, for heterosexual and same sex
marriages within the Goddess tradition.
You can now be legally married with your
ceremony conducted by a Priestess of
Avalon with the blessing of Goddess !
This is another first for the Glastonbury
Goddess Temple in Britain and in Europe !
Please contact Dawn Kinsella our trainee
authorized person, for further details.
dawnkinsella@hotmail.co.uk
Rediscovering the Dark Mother
Black Madonnas and ancient dark mothers
as symbols of liberation, socialism and justice
W
hat or who do we think of when we think of the dark African dark mother. Her continuing legacy is marked by passionate
mother ? Perhaps we associate her with death, decay identification with the oppressed and with values of justice, with
and renewal, or rebirth and transformation. We may compassion, equality and transformation.’ 2
Even today, in many areas where there are movements for social
see her as presiding over a pivotal point of existence,
one that is beyond life, into something unknown, powerful, unseen justice, against militarization, against the mafia or global capitalist
and deeply magical. We may associate the dark mother with our exploitation, there are Black Madonnas, such as the Madonna di
Capo Colonna in Cabria, one of Italy’s poorest regions, acting as a
shadow self, our unconscious, with our worst habits or fears.
When we think of Ceridwen we imagine the wizened and wise matristic fulcrum for deeply held values of peace, justice and equalold crone, perched at the point of the exit of this world, the point ity having their roots in the ancient African past and the values of
before repose. We may imagine her as presiding over a darkness sharing, caring, healing and vision. 3 Values that inspire the work
where we have to face our truths, where our souls churn in the of modern matriarchists such as Heide GÖettner Abendroth and
cauldron of wisdom, cleansing and renewing before the possibility Genevieve Vaughan.
This is a very brief sojourn into the work of Lucia Chiavola
of rebirth. But do we ever see her as an ancient black goddess ?
There is sufficient evidence to uphold the view that ancient popu- Birnbaum but perhaps it sows the seeds of a new understanding
lations of much of Europe were descendants of the Out of Africa of the dark mother. If we revisit the Ceridwen I described earlier
migrations from 40,000 BCE and that there were later migrations as a remnant of an ancient pre-Celtic Africanity perhaps we may
from North Africa into Europe. Ceridwen is often described as dark see her as a symbol of the ancient roots of the values of the
Motherworld presiding over the Cauldron of sharing, caring, healand deformed or ugly.
Because of her own possible mixed genetic heritage Ceridwen ing and vision. This is an important perspective as it is based on a
could have had a white, straight limbed beautiful daughter and a principle of equality and justice. In Maulana Karenga’s vision of the
black son, Afagddhu, deformed through rickets, (ddhu or dhub means ancient Black Goddess Maat she stands for truth, justice, propriblack). The knowledge Ceridwen possessed was that of the ancient ety, harmony, balance, reciprocity and order in societies that care
African ones, and this was due to be inherited by her son, partly to for the poor, weak or elderly. There is no space for a patriarchal
compensate for his deformity. Instead, as we know, chance passed it doctrine that celebrates inequality as part of a natural and divine
onto Gwion and all hell breaks loose with the angry Ceridwen giving order of ascendancy based on past lives nor on the nature of the
chase to the boy. Finally, as he turns himself to a grain of corn and protestant ethic. A Motherworld vision can encompass Wangari
she to a hen, and through the ingestion of this ‘seed’, Ceridwen gives Maathi’s metaphor of the African three legged stool where each leg
birth to Taliesin of the ‘radiant’ or ‘golden brow’ – the ‘white’, perhaps represents a mainstay of a community. These are democratic space,
albino, boy. The motifs contained in her chase of him also describe cultures of peace and sustainable development; when any one of
an alchemical transformation or a genetic process which, I suggest, these is weakened, the community sat upon the seat of the stool
allegorises how the light skinned, inherited the ancient knowledge of topples. So, if we create in our mind an image of the dark mother as
the ancient African matristic mother whose threads of wisdom still
those darker skinned people who went before.
Representations of the dark mother are first found in the caves permeate the subaltern depths of our cultures we can tap into those
of South Africa, dating 50,000 BCE where the use of red ochre and values and that vision for a better world, a Motherworld, where we
Stephanie Mathivet
the motif of spiral, circle and wave all point to the veneration of all matter and are of equal value.
the female divinity of prehistoric times. Migratory routes also reveal
consistent representations of her along the routes spanning thou- -----------------------------sands of years. Paleolithic female figurines, often called ‘Venuses’, 1. Mma Ramotswe is the central character in Alexander McCall Smith’s
book ‘Ladies Number One Detective Agency’, set in Botswana. Mma
found in various places in southern Europe, are characterised by
Ramotswe represents the values of traditional wisdom and is herself a
their corpulence, where their buttocks and hair patterns point to
lady of ‘traditional build’.
African physiognomy – or, as Mma Ramotswe would say they are 2. Birnbaum, LC. (2001) Dark mother – African origins and godmothers.
‘women of traditional build’. 1 In 1995 Lucia visited Balzi Rossi in
Authors Choice Press. USA p22
Italy to what are known as the ‘Grimaldi Caves’. There she was 3. Birnbaum, L.C (2000) Black Madonnas. Feminism, religion and politics in
Italy. ToExcel. USA p156
amazed to find the signs of the ancient African mother. Grottoes
shaped like wombs, bluffs coloured ochre red, shell remains from
ancient Senegal, and most significantly of all, little female figurines,
full breasted and with pregnant bellies. Sites like this, she says
The Goddess Temple, Saturday 26th July at 7.30 pm
became, in later times sanctuaries of the Black Madonna.
The image of the great African Goddess Isis became popularA pre-Crone Conference evening featuring
ised in Roman times as that of the mother and child. This image
Keridwen the Pole Dancer
melded with that of other dark female divinities such as Cybele,
Following her recent knee injury, Keridwen will be resting
Inana, Astarte and they flourished across north Africa, Asia, the near
on cushions in the Temple reading poetry and extracts from
East and Europe, prefiguring the image of the mother and child in
The Old Crone Mysteries, Book 1 – a Tale of Dark Deeds and Murder
Christian iconography. As Lucia says ‘Black Madonnas of Europe,
ffi contact her agent, Lorraine Pickles, Tel. 0751 161 8033
and other dark female divinities of the world, may be the most tangible evidence we have of the deep and persistent memory of the
The Old Crone Mysteries
Ausbildung
zur Priesterin der Göttin – Priesterin der Neuen Zeit/
zum Priester der Göttin – Priester der Neuen Zeit
in Deutschland
mit Dr. Miriam Wallraven
Priesterin von Avalon/Priesterin von Brighid
Habilitierte Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaftlerin
* Erlebe die Vielfalt der keltischen und germanischen Göttinnen im
Jahreskreis
* Erfahre ihre transformierenden Energien in Deinem Leben
* Erlerne das mythologische und theoretische Wissen und das
praktische rituelle Handwerk
der Priesterin/des Priesters für eine neue Zeit
Ein intensiver spiritueller Weg für Frauen und Männer
Erstes Jahr: 8 Wochenenden im Jahreskreis
(November 2014 – September 2015) in Tübingen
Weitere Informationen: heilende.insel@gmail.com
PRIEST/ESS OF BRIGHDE
TWO YEAR TRAINING
2015 / 2016
with
priestess of Brighde and Avalon
Marion Brigantia
,in association with
the Glastonbury Goddess Temple
Becoming a Priest/ess of Brighde
entails taking part in ten weekends over two years
exploring and learning to work with the nine fold
energies of the Wheel of Brighde.
It is a journey of reclaiming and celebrating
Brighde as Goddess of the Land and as
Goddess within you.
Contact information:
priestessingforyou@live.co.uk
Telephone: 079 480 79 671
http://marionvaneupen.wix.com/priestessing-for-you
© painting by Wendy Andrew
The Mask that Reveals
Seeking a Way Back to a Sacred Drama
C
onsider that it is only very recently in our journey as
humans that stories have become words on a page.
Before that stories were communicated through the
voices and bodies of a storyteller, whether that was the
hunter at the fireside, the bard in the longhouse or the actor on
the stage. There was an actor, a player, who mediated the story, its
emotions and its energy through their own body into the bodies
of the audience. It was a communal experience, a felt one, and a
transformational one.
Drama is embodied sacred art. Ancient peoples saw this, saw
Drama as sacred. In ancient Greece emotional disease was treated
with the prescription of a certain number of comedies or tragedies to
transform the blocked emotions. To shift grief, to move depression.
This is in itself amazing. But I think Sacred Drama’s roots go much
deeper than the surviving fragments of Greek Drama. To a time before
words, or at least before the rule of words. Where all communication
was about the body and movement. The communication of those
things bigger than the individual and deeper than the everyday, the
places where we connect with each other, and the divine. I believe
there was a time when there was no discernable difference between
drama and ceremony – that our distinctions would have been meaningless to the people then. I believe it was so in the Goddess times.
But what might a Sacred Drama be for us now, today ? Where
performance is so often cheapened to spectacle and consumerism ?
For me there are two interwoven threads. The first thread is concerned with the subject matter and themes of the play or drama.
And with Sacred Drama this is always the Divine, either explicitly,
in telling stories from faith and tradition (the School Nativity Play,
some Temple dance) or implicitly in the form of myths old and (re)
new (every retelling or revisioning of the old myth cycles that resonate down through the ages). Important for us as Goddess people
is the revisioning of myths and stories that all too often portrayed
women as passive or doomed. Kathy Jones has skilfully woven
these threads together in her Ariadne Productions (See her Book
On Finding Treasure : Mystery Plays of the Goddess ISBN 1 872983 03
0 to explore some of these scripts).
Sacred Drama can also be speaking the unspeakable, breaking
the Silence such as Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” or “Mother
Matters” from the Goddess Conference 2013. With Sacred Drama
the divine, spirit, that which connects us together to something
bigger than ourselves, and connects us deeper to the mystery, a
profound transformational energy, is present. It can be transcendentary and ecstatic, and it can be deeply uncomfortable.
The second thread refers to the Actor themselves. All artists are
channels of inspiration, wherever they decide that inspiration to come
from. For an actor that channelling process happens to us live, in front
of an audience, not in a studio. Our body and voice is our instrument.
Patriachy teaches us how to be in our bodies. Especially as
women. How to behave. How to hold ourselves. How not to take
up to much space. How to be horrified at the thought of being the
centre of attention. To be silent. To be seen and not heard until
invited. How to be here, but never fully present.
Drama gave me a way back from that. A way of discovering parts
of myself I’d abandoned, hidden, buried. Coming back to myself. To
this body, in this moment.
This process happens within the Actor, as we allow ourselves to
deepen into our abilities as an Actor, to practice and develop skills,
Mask by Lauren Raine
to explore our voices and our bodies, to stop playing the game of
believing that acting is “just pretending” or “showing off” and allow
the divine to speak, sing and move through us.
Embracing the transformational energy we step into centre stage
of not only the performance, but of our own lives. For we cannot
help but be changed by this process. As we begin to see our sacred
acting as a spiritual practice we begin to strip away the masks we
have worn to shield ourselves in life. To risk being vulnerable, to be
seen, to be judged. To allow ourselves to shine. We become more,
not less, ourselves. It is through putting on the mask of the Sacred
Actor that we reveal both our truth, and the truth of the divine.
And because the stories and themes sacred drama deals with
can be transformatory in themselves, the process also allows the
actor to see and deal with our shadow as it arises, as it will. For we
are the stories that we tell about ourselves. And we can become
trapped in our own stories. Through my own journey with Sacred
Drama I have become more aware of the ways in which I repeat the
same stories in my life, and the means by which I can change them.
That I can transform a maze into a Labrynth.
At Beltane I started holding a series of Sacred Drama workshops
in the Glastonbury Goddess Hall travelling around the Wheel of
Avalon. We started with Elen of the Ways, to find ourselves, timid
woodland animals hiding in the forest. To begin to get a sense of
herd, of movement, of connection. Each of the workshops includes
theatre exercises from a variety of traditions, voice work, character
work, Goddess story and image. The beginning of an exploration of
theatre as sacred art. Future plans include afternoon, day and weekend workshops exploring Gaia, Keridwen’s Cauldron, and sacred
mask making.
The journey will continue on Friday 5th September, 1-4 pm in
the Goddess Hall. Complete beginners welcome. You just need to
be ready to take off your masks. Contact me on katieplayer@gmail.
com for more details and to book your place.
Katie Player is a Priestess of Avalon and a Glastonbury Goddess
Temple Weaver. She has been a member of the Glastonbury
Goddess Conference Ceremonial Group for the last two years and
has Directed and performed in two Sacred Dramas for Conference.
Her background is in Theatre and Community Arts work.
The Mother, the Queen and me …
Lammas, the time of the Mother and the time of the Glastonbury
Goddess Conference.
The last two years I have worked closely with Her energy as the
Conference of 2012 was The Mother Conference and I was part
of the sacred drama ‘Mother Matters’ and held a workshop with my
priestess sister Lida, reclaiming Mother Mary as the Goddess who She
is. Last year (the Earth Conference) I was holding the South-West : The
Mother, Eartha of the Fertile Fields of Paradise, the Lands of Abundance.
I know that a lot of people find the Mother energy very challenging, because of experiences in the past with their mother, their
own experiences as mother or because they know they will never
be a mother. My part of ‘Mother Matters’ covered my experiences
as a mother who leaves her children in another country to follow
her dream and all that costs and brings. It was beautiful and healing
to do this and together with the stories of the other mothers we
really portrayed what it means to be a mother, with all the energy
which that role involves.
Last year’s conference I held The Mother’s space in Paradise and
although I’ve embodied many times now, the energy that came
through me in my embodiment during the opening ceremony was
truly overwhelming. There was no other way to describe what I
saw being The great Mother other than that all the people in front
of me that evening were Her fertile fields, Her lands of Abundance.
Such devotion, such wonder, such love. Almost too much for me as
human being to behold. The love I felt in return could only come
from The Mother. It was more than unconditional love, it was love
without beginning or end.
I feel I have a deep understanding of what it is to be ‘mother’. But
things are changing rapidly in my life ! It is interesting to notice the
changes in my life and body this year on the threshold of my fifties.
There is an undeniable shift taking place, inside and outside. Carolyn
Hillyer sings about this on her CD Old Silverhead and calls this time
of life ‘meeting the mirror’ and the time of the ‘midwoman’ – a defined
place in our lives of getting older and wiser, but not yet a crone.
The last few years the energy of ‘The Queen’ has arisen very
strongly. Of course the archetype of the Queen has been around
for a long time, a lot of Goddesses have the Queen energy like
Isis and Hera, Juno and the Celtic Queen, Guinevere. I remember it
was mostly Ava and Yeshi Rabbit though with their talk about The
Queen as part of the Wheel at the Goddess Conference in 2012,
who really brought Her home here in Avalon. Both Koko Newport
and Katinka Soetens really took up that thread and started working
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with The Queen. Koko (a true Queen (Bee) herself !) had a year
training ready to roll, but then the unthinkable happened when
she passed on and the training never took off. Katinka however has
been running talks and workshops about The Queen and working
with her I started to recognise The Queen energy in myself and
have welcomed Her in my life as well.
For me She is Britannia, Souvereign Queen of this sacred Land (as
sung at the Mother Conference by Sally Pullinger), She is the Land,
the West on the Wheel, which also fits in nicely with the Wheel
of Life. For me She is Mary, May Queen of Heaven and as such
we have crowned Her during a evening ceremony in the Goddess
Temple this year. And of course She is The Queen of Myself.
During my ‘Ireland of Brighid’ Tour this May, we went to Tara,
the ancient Royal Seat of Ireland. It felt so appropriate to do a
Queen ceremony here and the landscape lent itself for it perfectly.
We worked with the land to find our boundaries (our no’s and
our yes’s) of our realm, we connected with the ancestors to find
our foundations and finally at the Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny, we
claimed our Queendom inside and outside, which was validated
by the others present ! For me it was a significant moment, more
than finding my boundaries and claiming my realm. It really felt like
stepping over the threshold from being ‘The Mother’ into holding
the energy of ‘The Queen’. A moment to remember.
This year I am holding the energy of the West, The Queen, but
at the same time it is the Crone year. A interesting glimpse into the
future … the far, far future, because first, for the next few years, I am
determined to explore, experience and celebrate the fabulous years
of being a Queen !
Marion Brigantia van Eupen
http://marionvaneupen.wix.com/priestessing-for-you
Pilgrimage for Joan
It was in June 2008 that my wife Joan and I decided to visit
Glastonbury, having heard of the establishment of the Goddess
Temple, and having learnt a little about the spiritual ambiance
of the town.
So we stayed a week seeing many interesting and attractive
aspects of the town, including the Goddess Temple. We came
home with happy memories of Glastonbury, having viewed the trip
as a second honeymoon for two people deeply in love.
From 2008, Joan’s health deteriorated following a diagnosis of
breast cancer, and after six years battling with cancer she died in
April of this year. I was desolated. I decided to return to Glastonbury,
by way of a pilgrimage in memory of Joan.
I set off from my Anglesey home, facing rail and bus journeys to at
last arrive in Glastonbury once more. I decided to concentrate on the
Goddess Temple, where I spent many hours in contemplation and
meditation, all aimed at primarily thanking Goddess for nearly thirty
years of a good, happy marriage. There were also trips to and contemplation in, the Chalice Well, the stream and adjacent gardens and
ascents to the Tor, an achievement considering my own health issues.
Of course there were moments of sadness, but overall the pilgrimage was a success – in terms of thanksgiving and catharsis.
It was heartening to be welcomed by the Melissas in the quiet
and comfortable space, and I am grateful for all the efforts made
in maintaining the Temple. Mainly of course, I come back to the
Goddess, with gratitude for so many kind gifts She has given me
both externally and internally.
Peter Hope Jones
Goddess Retreat on the Isle of Iona
This island set apart, this motherland of many dreams, still yields its secret,
but it is only as women seek that they truly find. To reach the heart of
Iona is to find something eternal. G.E. Troup
T
ravelling to Iona is not easy ; that is part of the magic and an
important part of the retreat. Each stage of the journey aids
you in stepping out of your everyday life and leaving your
entanglements behind. For most of us the journey involved
travelling by cars, plane, train, ferries, buses, and plenty of Shanks
pony on the island !
As soon as I read the email from Kathy Jones about the retreat I
knew I had to go to Iona. There was a need to strengthen my connection with the Goddess but beyond that I wasn’t sure why the
calling was so deep. I suspected I would be about to find out !
Twice each day we would have a sharing circle where we would
share our day, laughter, tears, gifts, readings and prayer. Those times
were so special and it was wonderful to enjoy the company, spirit
and gifts of so many special women.
Every day we would walk out on the ancient land of Iona (its
rocks are said to be the oldest in the world) and feel the connection
with a most ancient Goddess, who was ever present in the land,
sky and sea. She is primordial and very restorative in nature, all you
have to do is open your heart to her, she does the rest and the peace
that you gain is like no other.
During our five days on the Island we covered the length and
breadth of this beautiful, elemental Island. One journey in particular stays in my mind as we ventured into the wildest part of the
Island to visit Brigit’s Bay. The “silence” from human noise enabled
us to hear the hum from the land, generated by the Goddess and
elementals ; our eyes to see the wonders produced from this energy
and our feet to feel the healing properties of the bogs (never had
such soft feet) !
When we arrived at Brigit’s bay it could be likened to being a
child in sweet shop ; where to go first ? Walk the labyrinth, to forage
amongst the sea’s bounty in the form the multi-coloured stones,
paddle in the turquoise waters or for the really brave ; swim in the
sea ? The stones won my vote and my eyes soon started scouring
the tidal line as the eternal beachcomber hunting for the mermaid’s
tears stones. The oystercatchers soon let me know if I strayed too
close to where they were nesting with their fluting call. The oystercatcher’s link with Brigit is in one of its old Gaelic names (Ireland
and Scotland) of giollabride, or Brigid’s servant.
The mermaid’s tears were said to be shed by the mermaids who
were driven away from the Island when the monks arrived and they
are washed up onto the beaches today, by the tides and storms as
greenstones. The mermaids have outlived the monks as a presence
on the Island.
It was a day to remember as my soul was set free, a gift from this
wild land.
Our second day on the Island was spent in silence, which provided a great opportunity to slow down, to be open hearted, listen
and connect to this bounteous Goddess land, from her greenness,
rocks, flowing waters and surging sea, the dazzling blue sky with the
birds spiralling upon the unseen winds, to feel this ancient Goddess
who has no remembered name as yet (Is she Ioua of the moon ?).
Another special moment was to sit in silence in the ruins of the
12th century Nunnery and listen to the day trippers chattering as
they walked past, not one of them venturing inside. I imagined how
it must have felt to have been shut away from the outer world, all
those years ago, not because of a religious calling but because you
were a girl who was illegitimate or orphaned or a woman who was
unmarried or widowed (there is a plaque at the entrance to the nunnery saying it gave refuge to these women and girls). I hoped the
ancient Goddess of this land held them and gave them hope. That
night I was rocked to sleep in her cradle.
Kathy offered each of us a healing session or a reading during
the retreat and most of us had a wonderful aromatherapy treatment
from Kathy’s daughter, Iona. The hotel offered delicious organic
food, all the better for not having to cook it ourselves and a peaceful environment (no television in particular) to inhabit. Tucked away
within the grounds, is the peace garden where several of us would
meet after dinner to do our spiritual practice and to sing, overlooking a field of sheep and the sea. During our singing the sheep slowly
made their way down the field to where we were stood, to face us,
listening to our song of Ioua.
Other magical experiences included climbing the highest point on
the Island (Dun-i) to visit the well of eternal youth, where a couple
of us were tempted into immersing in the water and visiting Fingal’s
cave on Staffa, were the elemental energies are immense but the
most magical part for me was connecting with the ancient Goddess
presence of this land, who has no name or face but has my heart.
Nikki Shabbo
Our vision at Goddess Temple Gifts is to
support Goddess loving artists – to honour
creativity in all its forms – promote and
encourage 21st century images of Goddess so
that everyone will see Her image and know of
Her presence.
Different images of the Goddess have appeared
throughout time and at Goddess Temple Gifts
we are integrating past and present by selling
contemporary Goddess art alongside the
ancient matriarchal imagery created by our
ancestors.
Goddess is returning and in our everyday lives the images
with which we surround ourselves are contributing to Her
re-emergence.
In Goddess Temple gifts we hold The Lady of Avalon as presence,
we are Priestesses working in the energies of Glastonbury
every day and we love our jobs. We are manifesting the gifts
of Goddess in our own lives, calling forth Abundance, Life,
Creative Flow, Grace and Gratitude.
And I call to you now – are you a Goddess loving artist, a
craftsperson with Goddess in your heart ? Then please do get in
touch and join us in creating and celebrating abundance as the
beautiful stream of the new flows into and out of the shop, like
a breath, She inhales and new work arrives and She exhales and
work is sold.
We are open every day 10 am – 6 pm
You can now buy online www.goddesstemplegifts.co.uk
Thank you everyone for supporting our Goddess Temple shop.
Our profits support the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury.
Telephone 01458 832 533
Support
the Goddess Temple
Giving Your Time and Energy
The Goddess Temple is open to the public seven days a week
with volunteer Temple Melissas looking after the space while it is
open. All kinds of people come to the Temple, some experiencing a
Goddess Sacred Space for the first time, and many Goddess pilgrims
who come to bathe in Her loving energy, to attend Ceremonies and
Healing Days. We always need more volunteer Temple Melissas.
If you would like to become a Melissa and can offer two or more
hours of your time regularly to care for this beautiful sacred space.
Contact Dawn Kinsella – dawnkinsella@hotmail.co.uk.
Become a Temple Madron
Make a monthly standing order donation to the Goddess
Temple to help cover our regular monthly costs. Any amount you
can donate will support the Temple. As a Temple Madron you
will receive our Temple Newsletter four times a year, plus invitations to special yearly Madrons, Friends and Melissa days where
Goddess speakers and presenters will delight and entertain you.
Please see details on the Temple website: http://www.goddesstemple.co.uk/index.php/how-you-can-help.
Make standing orders to The Glastonbury Goddess Temple,
Sort Code : 40-22-07 Account No. : 21374532. Let us know your
address for newsletters by emailing : info@goddesstemple.co.uk.
Three Spiral Priestess/
Priest of Avalon
Training
With
Erin McCauliff & Kathy Jones
DISCOVERY
With Michelle Patten,
Priestess of Avalon,
Priestess of Rhiannon
Come and find Goddess in the Land,
in yourself and in each other. Sing, dance, play,
share, create and craft to express Her energy !
Discover more about Her and about yourself
as she walks beside and within you.
A four-day training in Glastonbury for those stepping
onto the path of Goddess spirituality.
Four days over four months OR four consecutive days (below)
2014 – 24th to 27th June inclusive : 2015 – 16th to 19th June inclusive
6 September 2014 and 10 January 2015
Working with Goddess as Maiden and with the blessing of Fire
11 October 2014 and 21 February 2015
Working with Goddess as Lover and with the blessing of Water
8 November 2014 and 21 March 2015
Working with Goddess as Mother and with the blessing of Earth
6 December 2014 and 18 April 2015
Working with Goddess as Crone and with the blessing of Air.
photo: Rob Wildwood
Venues in Glastonbury
Contact : denhamhouse@yahoo.com
01458 835086 / 07542 946776
Michelle Patten, Priestess of Avalon
http://www.goddesstemple.co.uk
Priestess of Rhiannon
Priestess of Love Training
with
Katinka Soetens
Kathy Jones
An inspiring Priest/ess
training that will open
your heart, deepen
your relationship to
Goddess, stimulate
your creativity and
transform your life for
the better.
Open to women and
men who love the
Goddess and Avalon
Next First Spiral:
Eight Circles between
Nov. 1st/2nd 2014 and Sep. 19th/20th 2015
Email Priestess training also available. Info:
The Goddess Temple, 2-4 High St,
Glastonbury, BA6 9DU
Tel. 01458 831 518
Website www.goddesstemple.co.uk
Rhiannon, the Great Goddess of Love calls to us. She asks
us to remember who we are: Sacred Embodiments of Her.
Erotic, sensual, powerful, alive, conscious,
compassionate, beautiful, wild, wise and loving.
Priestesses of Her Temple which is our body, our mind
and our heart, and the land around us.
Eight weekends of teaching between
11th/12th Oct 2014 to 5th/6th Sept 2015
Further Info: The Goddess Temple,
2-4 High St, Glastonbury, BA6 9DU
Tel 01458 831518
Website www.goddesstemple.co.uk
THE WAY OF THE SEA PRIESTESS – AN INNER PATH
Our link to water and its
connection to the divine and
Goddess is something that
reaches back into the very mists
of time. For this blue planet our
home; is a watery planet and it is
from water that we owe our very
existence
T O BUY TH E BOO K , ATTEND THE
WO R KSHO PS O R PRI E STESS TR AINING
STARTING IN TH E AUTUMN O F
2014
O R TO FIND OUT MO RE EMAIL
ANISESTAR@HOTMAIL.CO.UK
O R GO TO TH E WAY OF TH E SEA
P RIESTESS O N F ACEBOO K F O R MORE
INFO RMATION
The Sea Priestess practice is one
of gratitude and elation in the joy of living. It is a
practice of creation. As we ebb and flow with the tide
and the dance of the moon from new through to full
we can steadily unfold our creative lives and connect to
our unique Priestess song.
In deepening our relationship with the Goddesses of
water we can awaken to her spiritual calling and be
inspired to lead creative and soulful lives. This practice
has been a blessing in my life and I am so happy to
share it with you.
Anna Saqqara
Soul Weaver · Healer
Ceremonialist
Soul Resonance Healing
ITEC Aromatherapy and Swedish Massage
Expressive Arts Therapist, Shamanic Journey Work
Goddess Temple Healer
Soul Support Facilitator
Soul Recognition- and Spirit Horse Retreats
Priestess of Avalon
Soul Weaver Wheel, Sacred Dance / Womb Dance
Personal Ceremonies, Handfastings
Goddess themed Workshops and Trainings
07877 247105 · annasaqqara@gmail.com
Editors, Lorraine Pickles & Lisa Newing, Priestesses of Avalon • design by Paul Williment, e-mail : brighid.design@mac.com