A trip to Glastonbury has been foremost on my mind for some time and just last week it unfolded for me, but not nearly in the way I had planned. If you have been following my Journey Through Avalon at all you will know that I had every intention of filming the experiences of Glastonbury Tor, the Chalice Well Gardens and much more for the benefit of those who have yet to experience it in person. This place is deeply linked to Christian history, but in it resides a much more balanced story of the christ, one which has largely escaped our modern history books. 

The night before going to Glastonbury I stocked up on cameras so that there was no way that I would be without. The batteries were charged, and in two cases there was plenty of room for photographs to be taken. My lovely psychic girlfriend had given me forewarning that I needed to do this as I seemed to be going through my own personal retrograde. In the morning before we left I checked and everything seemed to be looking hunky dory. I get to Glastonbury and it is a wholly different story. It quickly became apparent that there would be very little way of filming this event, all the cameras packed in on in me in one way or another. One of them due to an oversight, but two of them due to unexplained reasons. I managed to get a few shots of the gardens with one camera before it packed in. That day was not going to be a day for following my plan, I had to surrender to a more divine plan. 

Our first port of call on the journey was the Chalice Well Gardens, a place of peace and serenity that has attracted meditators for nearly a century. That day it was neither peaceful or serene, in my own mind or on the physical landscape. It just so happens that at this time there are a number of construction projects taking place on site and the noise of bulldozers, diggers and construction workers filled the air. I could feel myself getting agitated more now. I had to find somewhere where I could reconnect to myself. 

It is a very handy thing that my parents have bought a home a few miles from the Preseli hills in Wales, a cool synchronicity in many ways. Anyone who is interested in the origins of Stonehenge will be as interested as I am about this beautiful landscape, for it is the place of origin of the famous bluestones that sit on the inside of the great circle. Thankfully we are not talking about mountains of the same scope as the great Rockies and the pilgrimage takes about 50 minutes from the entrance we chose. It took me back to a place and time where humanity lived in partnership with the earth.

As you scale the hills you have time to think about what you are approaching and you can imagine the precession of neolithic people who would have scaled these same hills many millennia ago. Researchers believe this area to be a sacred site as much as 4400 years ago and have found geometric relationships between the various cairns, burial grounds, that are on the site. It could well have been their temple. In our present time, as we are reminded more and more of the temple within our own heart, physical temples are not sought out as readily as they once were, a testament to the value of teachings at different times throughout humanity's evolution. 

The walk up the mountain carried me through quite boggy ground; I wonder how boggy it would have been all those years ago for our ancestors. Sheep litter across the hills and you need to resign to the fact that you will be carrying their droppings on your boots whichever path you choose. At one point I almost lost my shoes in the sticky bog, which tried to drag me back, but thankfully there was just enough of a grip to pull them out of the shallow mud and carry on. The mud stands as a good metaphor for the muck we traverse on our pilgrimage from the head to the heart; It can slow us down, so ultimately it is just better to play in it! 

I have been in the UK for just a few days and it seems like already so much has happened, though none of it according to any preconceived plan. No sooner had I walked through the door and been greeted by Nicole than I found out that my youngest brother had been badly badly beaten by an attacker on his return from a night at the pub with friends. It felt like I was in a game of chess and had to decide how best to respond to somebody else's move. 

Anyone who knows my brother knows that he is not the kind of person to aggravate fights, in fact his pacifism may be genetic, something that most of my family have inherited. What I did notice though was my own thoughts of wanting revenge, wanting to get the person who did this to my brother. I am sure I was not alone in this, my two other brothers were walking the streets trying to find out what happened. We are pretty tight as far as brothers go, and we do look out for each other. At the same time it showed me what I might be willing to do as part of that bond. 

I observed the thoughts of revenge, of wanting to achieve something that suited me, but I have not acted upon them and will not. It was just interesting to notice them arise in my consciousness and allow for a higher consciousness to take charge. I think of the tight bond that the Knights Templar had, how they were brothers together and stood by one another in the most challenging of times. When we act upon our emotions there is usually some kind of attachment to the outcome that only leads to further suffering. Without attachment I believe that the justice I seek in this case will come by quicker. It may never get resolved in a court of law, the evidence at the moment is purely circumstantial, but I do know and trust that a man who has done that to another can never escape himself. Hopefully the police investigating the case will ensure that he does not do this to others. 

And so, no matter how much I would like to act out my feelings of anger, I know that it would only result in more suffering for me and for others. The attacker has sealed his fate, whether it is through the courts of law or his own life experiences. Our focus as a family has been on the healing of my brother, supporting him how we can. He is downplaying the injury and reminds me of the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail; "It is just a flesh wound, I have had worse." The injuries are pretty severe and I am thankful that he is open to the recommendations of Nicole who specialises in somatic healing work with her energy healing practice. 

Before I came out here I did receive a healing reading from a first nations elder who said that this trip would be healing for me on many levels and would benefit others who I had been like brothers with in other lifetimes. Perhaps it is the brothers that I have in this lifetime. I would never have guessed that my opportunity for healing would infold in this way. I have already shed tears over the idea that someone could do this to another person for no apparent reason. The fact that it was my brother brought it closer to home. Mindless violence saddens me. The attacker took nothing from my brother, despite him being in possession of a cell phone, money and a rather nice watch. Something else had compelled him to do this and that is what made me sad. The fact that somebody might carry this out for the sheer act of violence alone. 

Whether this attacker was trying to prove something, whether he was high on drugs, or whether he suffers from some psychiatric condition, he has already altered the course of this adventure in Avalon. What I noticed was the ease with which I was able to yield to new plans for this trip and how, despite the severity of the situation, other plans new seem to unfolding in a much easier fashion. If I was in Avalon today I would not be delivering you high quality video productions, because I can barely keep my eyes open. Jet lag seems to be more challenging than usual. I also find myself with more time to study material related to the places I shall be soon traveling on this quest. I trust that the rest of this journey will unfold as it should, rather than as I think it should, but hopefully with fewer dramatic events. Either way, it makes for an interesting and healing quest. 

Onwards to Avalon!