HOLY THORN - A REQUEST

The Holy Thorn in all of it's glory

and as it still is in my memory,

Roy Vickerey of http://www.plant-lore.com/news/holy-thorn-update-3  is hoping to hear from people who have reminiscences or memories of visiting the Holy Thorn that once grew on Wearyall Hill, Glastonbury, Somerset. 

Unlike ordinary hawthorn trees, The Glastonbury Thorn flowered twice a year, the first time in December and the second time in spring and had a great deal of lore attached to it.
Sadly it will not flower this year as it has been destroyed by vandals, hence Roy’s call for your memories please.



Below are mine:

In the 1970’s and 80’s I lived in Glastonbury in a small house that faced Wearyall Hill and every morning, whether upstairs or downstairs, the Tree was always visible to me and in my focus. 
Glastonbury itself provided me with a lot of firsts in my life. It was there that I started a daily practise of transcendental meditation and where I began to compose poetry as well as sensing energies etc.

Living there one could not but absorb all of it’s myths and legends. The legend of St. Joseph of Arimathea in particular is so well steeped in the town that it is said he brought cruets of Christ’s blood with him
when he visited and that he secreted them in Chalice Well. These containers of blood are depicted in carvings on the porch of St.Benedict’s Church.

The Holy Thorn Tree on Wearyall Hill was to all who lived and visited the place evidence and proof of a living legend, a legend that told that the tree grew from  St J of Arimaethea’s staff and flowered twice a year.

I often walked up there, that’s what the majority of people did for it was somewhere handy to sit in peace and muse the time away or merely just to collect one’s thoughts, without having to make the long walk to Chalice Well or to The Tor.

Probably my last visit to the Tree was in the company of the late Olivia Durdin Robertson (co-founder of The Fellowship of Isis), in August 1997 when I took part in a short Lughnasadh ritual with members of Fellowship of Isis & attendees of the Goddess Conference.

If like me, you may have lived in Glastonbury, still live there or have even been a frequent visitor, in which case please share your memories with him. 
This is one way of keeping the Holy Thorn Tree in flower.
You can contact Roy via his website: http://www.plant-lore.com

All that remained after a mindless

 & senseless act of destruction.

Amongst Trees and Roadside Things

Nut laden overhanging Beech Tree

macro shot of a Beech Nut

The Beech trees almost olive green are laden with nuts and soon squirrels will

dance on thin branches & to gather their winter fayre. 

A rare road marker

At the road side a rarity sits, it is almost a monument to old travellers, a

hand carved Milestone. The thoroughfares were littered with them once on main roads and byways, at junctions and forks in odd out of the way places; these sentinels stood marking the path and telling the distance.

A surprise came my way the other day. A call from a friend who said

'Can I use your poem "Moon Is" to decorate an entrance for the 

Body and Soul Festival at Ballinlough Castle?'

Needless to say I was delighted with this to me novel way of viewing prose.

Details:

Ballinlough Castle is located on the N52 (Kells to Mullingar road) approximately 3 miles south of Clonmellon and 4 miles west of Athboy. www.ballinloughcastle.ie

Body & Soul Festival bodyandsoul.ie

The words are :- 

Moon is 

                  subtle

Oval ivory white

                  countenance

A sensuous glow

                  disturbs

Who sits in quiet

                  encourages

Observance

                  merriment

At least

                  pleasures         

Tempts one

                  desires

To believe so

                  love 

Innocent  

                  lust

       

    She is an Earthy Woman

© MRL 2014

A DAY OF DELIGHTS

The day started at about 4-30 a.m, as it always does whenever the First Light filters through the curtains. My time of rising varies throughout the year, subjected as I am to the Sun. The one blessing is that now that I am retired I can always slip back into bed for a short sleep. 

The Waning Crescent at 5-00 this morning 26th April.

Sunrise was at 6-10. We are approx GMT -30 minutes.

Our bathroom goddess Boann.

We have given our bathroom a going over (a make over) and she who has been gracing the wall above our bath was included in the process. Mrs H gave her |(Boann) a repaint plus with the addition of crystals, pearls and shells. In candlelight she positively glows

giving the setting a peaceful atmosphere, whilst one relaxes in a hot bath.

A 6 year old Pear Tree

I have never seen so much blossom on our pear tree, unfortunately if we are to have any decent sized fruit, we shall have to drastically remove many of the small pears. For  I think that it were let go then many of it's slender branches would break off.

A macro shot of a pear floret.

While  taking a few photo's of the tree I was unable to resist the beauty of the floret.

A mixed fruit cheesecake.

This last photo is actually some research. That Mrs H and I felt that we had to undertake, in order to fully prepare for our visitors who will be descending on us early next month.

Our unanimous verdict is that this cheesecake is one of the finest that either of us has ever tasted. In a word it is truly Sumptuous!

So much so that I am wondering if it might be too rich for them and am considering

whether it is possibly a Health and Safety issue. I shall be guided on this by the blog readers comments.

Dark v Light

You are welcome !

It is perhaps the growing dark, the cold chilling gloom, the quickening fall of night and those pretty illuminations that sit in windows and on eaves, gable ends, the cold electric guttering lights of my unseen neighbours, that cause Mrs Heron to talk of sympathetic magic and of trying to bring the Sun back ?

Are they, the good Christians around us, aware of what their hidden Pagan soul has led them into ?

The Solstice Tree, the evergreen a display of continuing life is being decorated, as I write.

Mrs H is well able for that, her skilful hands and artistic bent do it well.

She has just asked me 'What do we have at the top?' 'A Frog !' I said, pausing then to say 'Well how about the Witch instead?' I am of course totally wrong. It is the returning reborn Sun

The Frog goes over the door attached to the Deer tine and The Witch is hidden in the tree somewhere and The Owl perches wherever he can find a prominent place, among the lights which have been neatly spun around.

Don't look too close though, for there is naughty gnome in a state of undress sitting beneath the tree.

Some echoes of Winter sit below

A WINTER OFFERING.

Winter’s sharp passion sings

Thro’ black brittle thorn limbs

Over old Áine’s fertile plains

Where summer ferns once grew

Lush: in valleys - hidden places

Deep where springs weep.

Eriu’s blood flows fresh, new

birthing stone frosted icicles

to glint in watery sunlight,

as a rapier

sword of

youth.

© MRL 26. 12. 2001

SOLITUDE DISTURBED

The Sparrow Hawk on patrol

soundless swift sweep of wing

Prey in sight divides light

To kill disappear beyond bright.

Creeps child of forest's edge

stop, listen, one white scream.

A rapid rapier's beak struck

twilight to red dark death.

A spiral hidden from sunlight

tunnels through black earth

Family cavern warm mourn

their summers first born.

©MRL NOV 2007

Spatial Battle

Unhindered swirling waves

born of an untamed power

rotated by Sun Moon energy

Whose long seas seek

scream a wild throaty roar

To smash the fortress cliffs

asunder; wet wearing winds

In unceasing hunger battle

Plunder an ancient guard

of old Devonian stone.

To reclaim space, land

on which to expand.

Pulverised rock - small sand

floods wide the old boundary

In pride of new sea-room !

© MRL NOV 2007